DMCA Doesn't Protect Garage Door Remotes

bgood writes "A federal judge in Illinois has ruled that a univeral remote garage door opener does not violate the DMCA. "Consumers have a reasonable expectation that they can replace the original product with a competing universal product without violating federal law," Judge Rebecca M. Pallmeyer said. "This was an attempt to expand the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to where it had never gone before," said Andrea B. Greene, attorney for privately held Skylink, the manufacture of the garage door opener in question. "[This is] very good news for consumers." Additional coverage at Wired and Security Focus."

Comments

Re:What about software?

[October_30th]

Why would you want to do such a thing? You would only end up with a substandard version of Windows...

But can your neighbor sue you?

[whitefox]

My best friend used to live across town. One day, I discovered our remote operated his garage door too. So for about a month, whenever I drove by his house, I opened his door. Only when somebody was obvisously home of course. My friend laughed his butt off when he found out but thank god he never told his parents.

In a related story

[mabu]

I'm announcing my new combo garage door opener and Linux-based DVD player!

Universal door opener..

[fliptout]

Replace the dip switch inside the door opener with a 555 timer/counter circuit. Good times :)