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You Can Legally Hack Your Own Car, Pacemaker, or Smartphone Now (wired.com)
Earlier this year, we ran a story about how even possessions as personal as one's car or tractor, or insulin pump could not be legally hacked by the owner, but those constraints are things of the past now. From a report on Wired: Last Friday, a new exemption to the decades-old law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act quietly kicked in, carving out protections for Americans to hack their own devices without fear that the DMCA's ban on circumventing protections on copyrighted systems would allow manufacturers to sue themt (Editor's note: the website may block users who use adblocking tools. Here's an alternate source). One exemption, crucially, will allow new forms of security research on those consumer devices. Another allows for the digital repair of vehicles. Together, the security community and DIYers are hoping those protections, which were enacted by the Library of Congress's Copyright Office in October of 2015 but delayed a full year, will spark a new era of benevolent hacking for both research and repair. "This is a tremendously important improvement for consumer protection," says Andrea Matwyshyn, a professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University. "The Copyright Office has demonstrated that it understands our changed technological reality, that in every aspect of consumers' lives, we rely on code," says Matwyshyn, who argued for the exemptions last year. For now, the exemptions are limited to a two-year trial period. And the security research exemption in particular only applies to what the Copyright Office calls "good-faith" testing, "in a controlled environment designed to avoid any harm to individuals or to the public." As Matwyshyn puts it, "We're not talking about testing your neighbor's pacemaker while it's implanted. We're talking about a controlled lab and a device owned by the researcher."
Of course it will be interesting to watch the challenges to this. Just because the law says you can, it does not mean the companies will let you...
What about running the software to talk to the car?
Can they make an DMCA clam on it?
I hear it is really easy to overclock them.
Just update this regist-aaaaaarrrrghhhhh
The DMCA is not decades old yet. It was enacted in 1998, and while it does pull together two sets of treaties from 1996, the DMCA itself is ONLY 18 years old.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
I bet if I put the good code back into a diesel VW ECU someone will be butthurt.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
With default passwords of course.
Thanks Slashdot!
What a great country sometimes!
If you develop it all yourself and keep it private, you will be golden, transferring it to somebody else or using it on somebody else's car is not so good.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
I'm so glad you're allowing us lowly consumers to use the items we own how we want. Such a wonderful privilege, I hope the Corporations continue to grant us this great boon.
Could someone do a kickstarter to open up my car's SW and create dev tools for it? I have a 2015 Subraru Outback with EyeSight and I've already taken into the shop for two SW bug updates (one affected braking). I won't necessarily change anything, but it'd be good to have a look see. I'd also like an assessment of the SW quality level from someone knowledgeable in automotive programming. I could imagine a new kind of car review site that will take car code and run it through non-real time simulations and perform quality assessments just like other parts of the car are reviewed.
I know millions of pissed off playstation owners who would like to turn their systems back into homebrew linux boxes.
Google 'Subaru ECU tuning'. Not everything you want, but mostly.
The laws against this, haven't been stopping anyone. Thank dog for racers.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
I've got a friend who works for Mitchel1, who has been assisting me in that kind of endeavor for quite a while now. Aftermarket modified chips that allow for some impressive performance upgrades for weekend racers. The only caveat is they won't come close to passing certification and have to be swapped out for smog testing and such. I'd love to find a group capable of creating a board that could hold multiple chips and allow for dynamic switching.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Not sure why pacemakers were given as an example. Aside from carriers locking down smartphones, the place this will affect most of the public is in printers with stupid kill-switches if they detect a non-authentic (i.e. 3rd party without the 1000x price markup) ink or toner cartridge.
ok then what about posting that software / info on the web can they use the DMCA on that?
Can they use the DMCA to stop jiffy lube form using the dealer only reset change oil light code?
We're coming after you next!
Have gnu, will travel.
And I'm working on my insulin pump right now. Get rid of the fascist government-mandated performance limitations and I'll be able to do 90 to 0 in ten seconds (mg/dL). Woo hoo!
now you have done your daily cardio,
doesn't APR still allow for this?
Most of the ECU mods have a magic handstand you can do to put them back on a "factory" profile.
http://www.salon.com/2002/08/2...
Sorry about the autoplay crap, but that's where he published it.
Here's another link if you prefer
http://will.tip.dhappy.org/blo...
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
4 program switch out boards were common back in the day when you had to physically change out chips (for Ford Mustangs anyhow).
These days you just reflash the bad code before the smog check, then fix it again after passing.
Not all tunes will necessarily make the car fail smog.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
I'll bite:
Because Pacemakers (and the related implanted defibrillators) are something that independent security research on is a good thing.
Up till now, however, anyone hacking these for research could be sued under DMCA.
Another good effect:
Voting machines! (Assuming you manage to legally acquire one).
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
For some products you're only buying a lease of an in-perpetuity licence to use it. Many medical devices are "sold" this way, not sure if this great change will help...
Mostly, I just use my phone these days; Google Maps is always up to date, and I can download maps so I don't need to worry about cell coverage in the middle of nowhere.
Hopefully these exemptions will open the door to further challenges in court. As more and more people see the ludicrous degree to which the deck is stacked against consumers and the general welfare, things will slowly change through legal precedents and changed laws. One of the effects of this presidential election is that a majority of people realise the emperor has no clothes -- the lies (i.e., the Washington Consensus signed onto by both political parties) they've had shoved down their throats for decades no longer taste so good and are being expurgated. Let's cross our fingers that the issue referenced in the story is one addressed by more citizen vigilance and knowledge.
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
Posting software that works around software protections can still get you in trouble with the DMCA, even if it's 100% your own code. This was tested the very first time someone managed to figure out the DVD encryption scheme and published his software.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
Now maybe I can finally fix the Voice only option when the car is moving. Stupid Tom Tom is broken enough with out having to figure out what I am saying.
love the taste, hate the texture
I used to work with a guy who had a pacemaker. Every year or so he had to go in & have it checked out, he described the process for me.
Once they'd hooked up their machine to it, they could turn up the dial & all the sudden his heart is pounding like hes been running a marathon.
And he's just sitting there.
Okay i can see some practical benefits to being able to manually adjust that thing on the fly... but get it wrong & you might just die.
Are there people out there that actually want to do this?
This is huge, great news, and I'll take this opportunity to say "fuck Apple" while I'm at it.
Include a note, but don't call yourself an editor.
That would be illegal. If you happened to somehow magically have that software, the Librarian of Congress just made it legal for you to use it. Writing ("manufacturing") the software remains illegal, as does trafficking in it, marketing it or offering it to the public.
The problem isn't fixed until DMCA is repealed. LoC can't undo the injustice.
Everyone please remember to vote more Republicrats into Congress next week, in order to prevent freedom from breaking out. Evil depends on you. (just kidding, I know there are very few ballots containing any other choices. We have all been working to preserve evil for two years; it's not something we merely do next week.)
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
they already do, but the range is so short they still need to use a puck-shaped dongle.
How will this affect the communities of fans creating patches for game ROMs and the such (and then distributing the patch only)?
It wasn't the software that got him into trouble, it was the decryption key.
Yup. Some of us tune for better mileage and lower emissions! (And lower power too- the point is modding should be allowed if not encouraged).
Yes. I don't trust their security so I'd like to at least attempt to secure my own life saving device.
Your hacked device will be subject to zero-day attacks that will nevet be patched.
Will there be pearls in these DMCA clams?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
those protections, which were enacted by the Library of Congress's Copyright Office in October of 2015 but delayed a full year
What caused this one year delay?
I got almost the same effect overclocking my treadmill.
It's MY property so I have always been able to do that, and I always will, court rullings not withstanding.
Heretic. Burn him!
You can pass smog with a cam, but you'll need to adjust the maps. Cams don't trip the visual inspection, being buried pretty deep, neither do oversize injectors.
Do you go around looking at cars and thinking they all need GeoMetro 3 cylinder engines? I think GeoMetros need mice* myself.
* Mouse = small block chevy V8, Rat = Big block chevy V8
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Be aware that the same argument employed by John Deere and Sony and the other entities invoking the DCMA is identical to the rational behind the "Circular Economy" concept. Both destroy your property rights with a licensing scheme that states you don't own the thing you've paid for, but are only paying to use the item in the manner ALLOWED BY THE ENTITY that holds the license. Use outside that license is not permitted, and may cause the hammer of the law to come down and smash the offender .
Is there a law preventing one from buying a voting machine?
Say that I run ... let's say, the Student's Union (managing the pub, laundry, band practice room, and cafe) of Smallsville University (dedicated to the memory of Derek Smalls) ... and I approach Diebold (I may remember the name wrongly) to buy a voting machine for conducting our Union's internal democracy, then they'd turn me away citing [law number and section, of year].
Diebold may choose to tell me they only consider orders of ten thousand or more machines, for whatever reasons of business, policy or prejudice against Derek Smalls (Messiah on Mondays through Wednesdays) ; but that's a different thing to being prevented by law from selling me one.
Is there any law preventing me from buying one second-hand? You'll note that I've set up the scenario so I have perfectly reasonable grounds for wanting one - there's no nefarious intent to complicate matters.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
back in the days in communist korea there once was ....
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?