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EFF: DMCA Hinders Exposing More Software Cheats Like Volkswagen's
ideonexus writes: Automakers have argued that the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it unlawful for researchers to review the code controlling their vehicles without the manufacturer's permission, making it extremely difficult to expose software cheats like the one Volkswagen used to fake emissions tests. Arguing that this obfuscation of code goes so far as to endanger lives at times, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) maintains that, "When you entrust your health, safety, or privacy to a device, the law shouldn't punish you for trying to understand how that device works and whether it is trustworthy."
I love it! Volkswagen should just say "We didn't do it." Then sue whoever produces their code for reverse-engineering it. Then they can claim whatever "black-hat hacker" did it added the offending code to frame them. Prove otherwise without breaking the law!
This is by design in the DCMA. Keep people from looking at your code means preventing independent oversight.
But everyone that knows anything about the software industry already knows this.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
If the auto manufacturers want to start treating legitimate researchers like blackhats, they should just start acting like them. I'm sure they could cover their tracks and still publish the research.
Security through obscurity is doomed to fail. Auto makers apparently need to learn this lesson, but it would nice if they didn't have to learn it the hard way given the lives at stake. What really needs to happen is the establishment of a standards body and automotive software being held to a standard just as avionics software is. I get that this increases the price of the software considerably, but clearly it needs to be done.
Do they have any engineering expertise that proves this is even possible?
Maybe the last 100 years of internal combustion engine evolution? Detroit whined it was impossible until the Japanese and Europeans started selling cars with improved mileage.
My guess is that there is a shitload of engineering consulting on setting pollution and fuel consumption targets with ranges known to be obtainable with well understood technologies. I kind of doubt they are throwing darts on a dartboard.
The best way to test the emissions software, and the best from an engineering validation perspective, is to compare the Volkswagen software readings against direct measurements of the emissions (out of the tailpipe). This is a much more accurate method of regulation, and would have prevented this Volkswagen fiasco from the beginning. Regulators should test it this way rather than assume a vehicle manufacturer wrote software correctly, or even deliberately miswrote it. Access to software source code becomes unnecessary.