July 18, 2021
RE: ESA Written Comment Re: Right to Repair for FTC July 21, 2021 Open Commission Meeting
To Whom it May Concern:
The Entertainment Software Association1 is pleased to submit these comments in connection with the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) consideration of a policy statement on the right to repair. As the FTC is aware, video game console makers, publishers, and copyright owners, rely on the content protection systems built into consoles to protect against sophisticated piracy efforts. We therefore appreciated the FTC’s recognition in its report “Nixing the Fix: An FTC Report to Congress on Repair Restrictions” (“FTC Report” or “Report”) that protecting intellectual property (“IP”) rights benefits consumers and that any limitation on repair restrictions cannot be one-size-fits-all. Indeed, the Report makes a special effort to recognize that IP rights play a valuable role in encouraging and rewarding innovation, and that “any action taken by industry or regulators to enable independent repair should seek input from such entities [i.e., the USPTO and the US Copyright Office] and other stakeholders and be mindful of existing law and policy supporting IP protection.” For the reasons outlined below, we urge the FTC to ensure that its policy statement reinforces the importance of IP protection and that any repair mandate is not so broad as to undermine critical IP rights.
