About
Consumer Rights Wiki is a community-edited encyclopedia that documents anti-consumer corporate practices, right-to-repair barriers, planned obsolescence, & digital rights violations. The wiki is a project of the Fulu Foundation, a nonprofit organization. It contains 1,266 articles maintained by 117 active contributors.
Mission
Consumer Rights Wiki exists to document the ways companies restrict ownership, repairability, & consumer choice. The full Mission statement describes the distinction between traditional consumer protection (defective products, false advertising) & the newer forms of exploitation the wiki focuses on: cloud-dependent product shutdowns, forced arbitration clauses, software-locked repairs, subscription paywalls for hardware features, & planned obsolescence through software updates.
The wiki serves as a factual reference for journalists, legislators, advocates, & consumers who need documented evidence of specific corporate practices.
Topics covered
The wiki covers consumer rights issues across several topic areas:
- Right to repair
- Manufacturer restrictions on independent repair, parts pairing, serialization locks, & repair monopolies. See related articles.
- Planned obsolescence
- Deliberate shortening of product lifespans through software updates, component choices, or end-of-support policies. See related articles.
- Subscription paywalls
- Hardware features locked behind recurring fees after purchase. See subscription-related articles.
- Digital rights management
- DRM restrictions that limit how consumers use products they purchased. See DRM articles.
- Dark patterns
- Deceptive UI designs that manipulate consumer decisions.
- Forced arbitration
- Contract clauses that strip consumers of their right to sue.
- DMCA Section 1201
- How anti-circumvention law blocks repair & interoperability. See also DMCA.
Each article cites primary legal sources, court filings, government records, investigative journalism, or firsthand documentation.
Editorial process
Consumer Rights Wiki is openly editable, but all content must meet published quality standards.
Content policies define what the wiki covers & how articles are structured. The content policies set inclusion criteria, article types, & sourcing requirements.
Moderation is handled by a team of administrators & moderators listed on the staff page. The moderator guidelines set standards for evaluating submissions, resolving disputes, & handling vandalism. The moderators' noticeboard is the public forum for content disputes & editorial questions.
Citation requirements prioritize primary sources in this order: statute text & court filings, government records & FTC orders, investigative journalism from named reporters, & advocacy organization publications (iFixit, EFF, Repair Association). Moderators review new submissions against these standards and flag or remove unsourced claims. Unsourced claims are tagged for citation or removed.
The Fulu Foundation
Consumer Rights Wiki is a project of the Fulu Foundation, a nonprofit organization. The foundation provides infrastructure, hosting, & organizational backing for the wiki. This structure ensures the wiki operates as a long-term public resource independent of any single individual.
By the numbers
- 1,266 articles
- 117 active contributors
- 54,222 total edits
How to contribute
Anyone can contribute to Consumer Rights Wiki.
- Write your first article. Step-by-step guide for new contributors.
- How to help. Overview of all the ways to contribute.
- Article_suggestions. Community-maintained list of articles that need to be written.
- Wiki policy index. Full index of editorial policies & style guides.
Contact
- Discord: Join the Discord server
- Zulip: Join the Zulip community
- Moderators' noticeboard: Report content disputes or editorial questions
A browser extension is available for Chrome & Firefox that surfaces relevant wiki articles while browsing manufacturer websites.
License
All content on Consumer Rights Wiki is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. Anyone may copy, redistribute, & adapt the content for any purpose, including commercial use, provided they give appropriate credit & distribute derivative works under the same license.