I could not fetch a user manual because of protectionism, enshitification, and red tape.
The problems:
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The current right to repair laws obligate vendors to supply documentation. Yet many manufacturers are in walled gardens or deploy an access restricted website. If someone must compromise their privacy rights (data minimisation in particular) as a precondition to getting a manual, that’s effectively not a right but rather an exclusive privilege to repair.
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Some manufacturers operate under unknown short-lasting generic brands and support vanishes before the need for it even arises.
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There are several 3rd party enshitified middlemen pimping manuals that you cannot download unless you solve CAPTCHAs and disclose personal information. Then these shitty motherfuckers “optimise” search results so their booby-trapped manuals get higher search ranks than manufacturer websites.
So, new rules:
① The government shall form a public library for manuals. It shall comply with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 21, thus be open to ALL people without restrictions. It shall electronically publish all manuals it receives. If it receives a paper manual for which it has no electronic version, it shall scan it and make the electronic version available.
② Copyright protection is reduced in scope to exclude manuals. Manual creation is an obligation of producers of products and thus needs no incentive of copyright. Copyrights only serve as an obsticle to rights to repair.
③ Manufacturers shall send a copy of product manuals to the library established under rule ①, on paper or electronic. If an electronic manual includes or requires code execution (e.g. JavaScript) then it is not a document (it’s an application), thus a paper version must be supplied to the library regardless of whether an electronic version is submitted.
④ Gatekeepers who deploy web search services (Microsoft, Google) must ensure links to the library established under rule ① and manufacturer websites outrank 3rd party enshitified data-abusing manual suppliers. If the 3rd party manual supplier blocks archive.org from mirroring manuals, gatekeepers must de-index those 3rd parties entirely.
⑤ Manufacturers who restrict access to their own website must give an informative access refusal message. “403 Forbidden” is not informative. It must state why someone is blocked and give them options.
⑥ Manufactuers must respond to written requests for manuals even if it comes by postal mail and costs them postage. (As incentive to make their website functional)
⑦ The government shall establish a consumer protection agency that:
- Enforces these rules
- Collects metrics on failures to repair
- Publishes statistics on repair successes and failures by brand