DENVER (AP)   Colorado became the first state Tuesday to ensure farmers can fix their own equipment with the governor's signing of a "right to repair" law, which forces manufacturers to provide the necessary manuals, tools, parts and software.

Colorado, a state partly blanketed in ranches and farmland, took the lead on the issue following a nationwide outcry from farmers that manufacturers prevent them from fixing their own machines   from behemoth combines to thin tractors   when they break down. Farmers say it forces them to wait precious days for a servicer to arrive, a delay that could mean a hail storm decimates a crop or a farmer misses the ideal planting window.

Lawmakers in at least 10 other states have introduced similar legislation, including in Florida, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Texas and Vermont.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, signed the bill Tuesday afternoon, after the legislation advanced through long committee hearings, having been propelled forward mostly by Democrats even though a Republican lawmaker cosponsored the bill. The proposal left GOP lawmakers stuck between their farming constituents pleading for the ability to repair their equipment and the manufacturers who vehemently opposed it.

moiar

Probably one of the very few things the Denver communists got right.

Like all forcible interference in voluntary exchanges of goods and services between individuals, it will have unintended consequences.

Whilst I like the sounds of the bill in principle, through incompetence and malice the legislators only seem to make any problem worse.

I wonder how long it will take the manufacturers to refuse warranty work as non authorized work may have invalidated it. I suspect the first buba job screwing things up further will leave the guy with a million dollars worth of broke down machinery and no idea how to fix it screwed.

These days if I feel a warm spring rain, I assume its somone in Denver pissing on me, and pucker up for the "hydration fee" I am about to be charged.

Nice. So true and worth quoting.