Is this like a non-profit wing / initiative of the ifixit.com company?
DMCA exemption for repairs, modifications, research on your vehicle takes effect
11–20 of 104 posts
Re: DMCA exemption for repairs, modifications, research on your vehicle takes effect
#12This is great news. It is alarming to realize that a majority of devices built after 2020 will be connected to the internet without the choice for us to vet their security. Securing these devices must be a proactive endeavor.
Only if you buy them.
Or someone else buys them...
http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/10/double-dip-internet-...
Re: DMCA exemption for repairs, modifications, research on your vehicle takes effect
#13There is going to be a huge market in refurbished, older non-computerized machinery and automobiles. With farm and heavy equipment, this tends to be true already, since it is effectively indestructible, as the depreciation is significant, while the costs to replace with a brand-new model is astronomical, and so stuff gets rebuilt, welded up, patched up, and reused until it is completely kaput, often decades after it…
Non computerized automobiles are those before fuel injection became common, which dates back to the early 80's. One option would be anything with mechanical diesel injection pumps, but those will at some point be harder to get past emissions inspection. Keeping a car that old on the road is going to be tricky, the engines do wear out at some point and bodies will go faster depending on the climate. Anything from that…
There are different levels of 'computerised', though. An early 90s car with EFI and ABS does have some processors in it, but they're standard modules (so can just plug a new one in if one fails) running from EPROM and have very limited communication. Unless you're worried about it being EMP-proof, that's not really a problem.
Modern cars where everything is controlled by a central internet-connected computer are a whole different proposition.
Re: DMCA exemption for repairs, modifications, research on your vehicle takes effect
#14This is great news. It is alarming to realize that a majority of devices built after 2020 will be connected to the internet without the choice for us to vet their security. Securing these devices must be a proactive endeavor.
Only if you buy them.
They will be built into infrastructure (including up to your property line), building structure, & appliances. I suppose one can go to a wood cabin in the woods, off grid (unless that sort of lifestyle flags you as "radical").
Re: DMCA exemption for repairs, modifications, research on your vehicle takes effect
#15How did the DMCA ever get passed? It's an absolutely insane, ludicrous set of laws.
I'm going to start selling shirts that say "Today I Broke The DMCA". No matter who wears it, it's probably true.
Re: DMCA exemption for repairs, modifications, research on your vehicle takes effect
#16There is going to be a huge market in refurbished, older non-computerized machinery and automobiles. With farm and heavy equipment, this tends to be true already, since it is effectively indestructible, as the depreciation is significant, while the costs to replace with a brand-new model is astronomical, and so stuff gets rebuilt, welded up, patched up, and reused until it is completely kaput, often decades after it…
Non computerized automobiles are those before fuel injection became common, which dates back to the early 80's. One option would be anything with mechanical diesel injection pumps, but those will at some point be harder to get past emissions inspection. Keeping a car that old on the road is going to be tricky, the engines do wear out at some point and bodies will go faster depending on the climate. Anything from that…
Anything from that era will soon be a classic with associated spare parts prices.
The difference is that the parts are still much simpler in terms of complexity --- and thus ability to be reproduced --- than computerised controllers with their associated software. There are plenty of aftermarket parts for older cars and what isn't available could probably be fabricated easily or replaced with a suitable equivalent.
It will be far more difficult to do the same with modern cars, which have many more parts of higher complexity (and often deliberately designed for lock-in --- hence the DMCA.)
Re: DMCA exemption for repairs, modifications, research on your vehicle takes effect
#17How did the DMCA ever get passed? It's an absolutely insane, ludicrous set of laws. I'm going to start selling shirts that say "Today I Broke The DMCA". No matter who wears it, it's probably true.
Only if you don't get sued out of business using the DMCA before even selling your first shirt.
Re: DMCA exemption for repairs, modifications, research on your vehicle takes effect
#18How did the DMCA ever get passed? It's an absolutely insane, ludicrous set of laws. I'm going to start selling shirts that say "Today I Broke The DMCA". No matter who wears it, it's probably true.
The power which the pro-DRM industry groups have is immense.
Re: DMCA exemption for repairs, modifications, research on your vehicle takes effect
#19Is this like a non-profit wing / initiative of the ifixit.com company?
iFixit is a social mission driven company. Just about everything we've done over the last ten years has been to expand the right to repair and make it possible for everyone to fix every thing they own.
But there are a whole lot of other organizations also interested in making repair more legal and affordable, and they wanted to start contributing time and funds. So we started Repair.org with them. There's a bunch of awesome organizations involved — ISRI (the recycling association), IAMERS (the medical device repair association), EFF, and a bunch more.
Re: DMCA exemption for repairs, modifications, research on your vehicle takes effect
#20"No user serviceable parts inside"