Article of the Day: The Fight to Repair Your Vehicle

Good news for Gearheads, the US Copyright Office granted an exception in copyright law that permits gearheads and home mechanics to continue repairing and modifying their cars without breaking existing copyright law. To clarify, this ruling concerns the software that modern vehicles use, not the actual hardware. No one is suggesting making it illegal to change your oil or such. The reason that auto-companies opposed this decision has to do with the issue of the software that modern cars use, saying it has become too complex for hobbyists and that errors could lead to safety hazards. But the Copyright Office sided on the side of hobbyists, saying that altering the code on the software was not infringement. There has been some concern that people could tinker with the software to cheat emissions tests (Like some big car company recently...), and that the software wasn't actually 'owned' by customers, just licensed to them. To clarify, this exception is limited only to the actual vehicle owner, not to any third party person or company. What do you think of the ruling, do you think this is a bit futuristic, or should this have been declared a while ago? Tell us in the comment section.

 

 

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