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Why Sleep Apnea Patients Rely On a Lone, DRM-Breaking CPAP Machine Hacker (vice.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the fight-to-repair dept.

Jason Koebler writes: "SleepyHead" is a free, open-source, and definitely not FDA-approved piece of software for sleep apnea patients that is the product of thousands of hours of hacking and development by a lone Australian developer named Mark Watkins, who has helped thousands of sleep apnea patients take back control of their treatment from overburdened and underinvested doctors. The software gives patients access to the sleep data that is already being generated by their CPAP machines but generally remains inaccessible, hidden by DRM and proprietary data formats that can only be read by authorized users (doctors) on proprietary pieces of software that patients often can't buy or download. SleepyHead and community-run forums like CPAPtalk.com and ApneaBoard.com have allowed patients to circumvent medical device manufacturers, who would prefer that the software not exist at all. Medical device manufacturers fought in 2015 to prevent an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to legalize hacking by patients who wanted to access their own data, but an exemption was granted, legalizing SleepyHead and software like it.

3 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. From TFA: by robbak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Christy Lynn was tired all the time, and, after months of trying to diagnose the problem, one of her doctors thought they’d figured out why.

    “I didn’t fit any of the descriptions for sleep apnea,” she told me on a phone call. “I’m a woman, I wasn’t overweight. No one would have thought to test me, except I was seeing a doctor who had a similar medical history.”

    --
    Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
  2. The minute printer makers DRMed ink by Crashmarik · · Score: 5, Insightful

    or garage door openers their remote codes, the system should have switched to needing an exception to having to prove that it was legitimately copyright material.

    But as I said elsewhere, I'll take "Evidence the USA is an Oligarchy" for $500

  3. Re:Sleep apnea? Lose some weight by omnichad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've had a narrow naropharyngeal cavity my whole life. Great for holding your breath underwater, but terrible for breathing while laying down.