You know what a pain those plastic engine covers are? How they get in the way and hide your own cars engine from you? Well, consider that black piece of molded plastic a metaphor for something much worse: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Automakers are trying to use the DMCA to say you cant work on or modify your own car.
We all know that working on and tinkering with a modern car is a very different undertaking than it has been previously. Its no longer just about putting on a new manifold and dual carbs, modern cars involve many, many computers, and working on your car usually means working with and talking to the computers embedded in the car.
Theres nothing inherently wrong with all the computers in cars, and they allow for safety, convenience, and efficiency levels in our vehicles far beyond what weve been able to achieve before. But that doesnt mean they cant be repaired or tinkered with by the owner it just takes a new set of skills and tools. Its not like re-jetting a carburetor was something just anyone could do, anyway this is really no different.
Well, it is different in one very important way: because so much of how modern cars work involves computers and software code, cars can now fall under the aegis of bills like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and automakers can use this act to try and restrict what an owner can do to the car that they bought.
Automakers are considering cars mobile computing devices and as such would fall under the DMCAs pretty draconian protections. Really heres how they describe their reasoning in the Auto Alliances (a group of carmakers including BMW Group, FCA US LLC, Ford Motor Company, General Motors Company, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes- Benz USA, Mitsubishi Motors, Porsche, Toyota, Volkswagen Group of America and Volvo Cars North America) statement against a proposed exemption to allow people to work on their own cars:
Automobiles are inherently mobile, and increasingly they contain equipment that would commonly be considered computing devices... Many of the ECUs embodied in todays motor vehicles are carefully calibrated to satisfy federal or state regulatory requirements with respect to emissions control, fuel economy, or vehicle safety. Allowing vehicle owners to add and remove programs at whim is highly likely to take vehicles out of compliance with these requirements, rendering the operation or re-sale of the vehicle legally problematic. The decision to employ access controls to hinder unauthorized tinkering with these vital computer programs is necessary in order to protect the safety and security of drivers and passengers and to reduce the level of non-compliance with regulatory standards. We urge the Copyright Office to give full consideration to the impacts on critical national energy and environmental goals, as well as motor vehicle safety, in its decision on this proposed exemption. Since the record on this proposal contains no evidence regarding its applicability to or impact on motor vehicles, cars and trucks should be specifically excluded from any exemption that is recommended in this area.
Now, its not like they dont have any points there could be safety implications (though not likely enough to make the car any less safe than, say, a road-legal vintage car), but locking out key safety features while leaving other components open to repair or modification is certainly possible. This isnt an all-or-none kind of situation.
This means if you want to modify your car by getting your ECU flashed to make changes to, say, increase horsepower, change throttle response, or whatever, youre violating the law, even if you dont touch any of the safety or security code in the cars computers.
The lengths automakers (and, as youll see, tractor and farm equipment makers) are going to justify the idea that you cant modify a product you paid money for and own is absurd. The car makers dont want you to be able to even look at any of the code in the vehicle you own and entrust your safety to, citing worst-case scenarios like you might try to use that code to change the odometer reading to defraud someone or youll use it to find ways to break into other peoples cars.
Even better, in this EFF article about the DMCA restrictions, they cite John Deeres wildly bonkers justification for keeping people from tinkering with its products:
John Deere even argued that letting people modify car computer systems will result in them pirating music through the on-board entertainment system ... (and the exemption process doesnt authorize copyright infringement, anyway).
Right, that makes sense! Whats the best way to burn a copy of a friends CD? With a tractor! Or, better yet, a combine! Hell, those things are basically just big motorized music-pirating machines that just so happen to be able to harvest millet and sorghum.
This whole thing is wrong in so many ways, and if the automakers are allowed to restrict owner access to their own cars whether they themselves tinker or repair them or not a cascade of unfortunate effects will follow. Independent repair shops will have it especially rough, becoming vulnerable to manufacturer lawsuits if they attempt to repair a car by accessing the restricted code or even just connecting to the ECU.
Aftermarket companies could become illegal, since technically, even something as basic as changing the wheel size on a car can affect the ECUs ability to compute speed and make adjustments accordingly and a manufacturer could decide thats tampering with the inputs to the ECU or something. Maybe thats a stretch, but maybe not this law could make that possible.
Im a firm believer that if you cant open it, you dont really own it. I believe in things like Mister Jalopys Makers Bill of Rights, and I firmly believe that everyone who owns a car has the right to work on their car.
If a manufacturer wants to void a warranty, fine. Thats the risk we take. If they want to make safety and emissions modifications harder to do but still accessible for independent repair shops to work with okay. Hell, if they even want to stop selling cars entirely and just lease cars with the understanding that the driver doesnt truly own the vehicle, theyre free to do that, too.
But if I buy a car, I should always be free to fix or modify that car, even if its a terrible idea that gets me 20 HP and 11 MPG. It doesnt matter its my car. Besides, how would this be enforced, anyway? If you were pulled over, could a cop plug into your OBD port and read some checksum or something to see if the car has been modified? Would used cars be checked by some agency to insure compliance? It seems like a lot of waste and expense for something thats just feeding a potential automaker repair and aftermarket monopoly.
The EFF is circulating a petition to add an exemption to the DMCA to allow people and independent shops to work on cars, and I encourage everyone to sign it.
I reached out to the Automakers Alliance via phone and email, but have not received a response as of publication time. Ill update if I hear anything.
Now I think Im going to rip the plastic engine cover off my press car.
