Live data from Hacker News

Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

ifixit.org

41–50 of 354 posts

Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#41

Based on “the maintenance of a device or system … in order to make it work in accordance with its original specifications” can I or can I not legally unlock a device to use a different OS/apps on it?

I'm hoping this is broader than it appears. For example, a mobile phone is assumed to receive updates to its software for, let's say, security purposes, and the customer may well consider that to be a real factor in deciding to buy the phone. If the manufacturer stops issuing security updates, I would read this exemption as protecting work to ensure that phone can continue being secured, even if that's by community patches that are backported, or even by installing another OS that is still supported. I have no idea if this interpretation would fly legally, but it passes the common sense test: just because a manufacturer decided to stop issuing patches for your phone doesn't mean you should have to choose between spending hundreds more for a new phone and being totally exposed to security vulnerabilities, all in the name of a copyright law that designed to prevent piracy (presumably).

Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#42
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also true of elevators. The vendors intentionally write awful code so that only they can fix it.

This is quite horrifying. I am not sure if the elevator ride will be the same again for me.

Other than the space shuttle, by measuring deaths vs distance traveled per person, the elevator is the safest form of transportation.

https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/2qbjw2/requ... though I recommend reading more into it and doing your own math.

Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#43
post #2

Great decision, though it'd be better if it was embedded into law and couldn't go away down the line. At the least DRM and legal protection should be either/or, like secrets vs patents. Part of the return the public is supposed to see for granting legal protection to IP is that the IP is then made widely available (as well as eventually entering the public domain) and can be built upon for personal use, commentated u…

> though it'd be better if it was embedded into law and couldn't go away down the line I'd go further and say that there's nothing of any significance in this decision since it will likely go away down the line since it was not codified in law.

Case law is law in our system, and having explicit legislation doesn't protect you anymore from future changes than case law does.

Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#44
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm terrified. I saw John Deere code, and its tortuous. Nobody should try to fool with it without serious study.

This is also true of elevators. The vendors intentionally write awful code so that only they can fix it.

I live in central London in a 3-4 years old building (24 floors) and the elevators are truly a joke. Every 3-6 days they somehow get out of sync with which floor they are currently on, especially if you go first to -1, after that pretty much every floor will be wrong :) I always wonder who wrote it.

Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#45
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Content Scramble System on DVD's isn't anti-competitive, since all players can obtain a license for it, it's just anti-consumer. The example I'd like to see is of a single work that wasn't pirated due to DRM. DRM is hidden behind this wall of lies where ostensibly it's about piracy but in reality it is not. The true purpose is to control legal playback behavior, like how all legitimate hardware DVD players respec…

DRM is sometimes useful to delay the pirating of games. It would be nice if they were forced to remove it after 1/3/12 months.

Considering DRM is often cracked within hours of release I'm not sure if it is really worth the cost of the license.

Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#46
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm terrified. I saw John Deere code, and its tortuous. Nobody should try to fool with it without serious study.

"If it's not broken, don't touch it" For the longest time Zara used an MS-DOS based POS system, and hey, it worked.

And then you get hacked. Pos code is junk, and the os they run on is outdated and unsupported. It's amazing any of it actually works.

Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#47
post #2

Great decision, though it'd be better if it was embedded into law and couldn't go away down the line. At the least DRM and legal protection should be either/or, like secrets vs patents. Part of the return the public is supposed to see for granting legal protection to IP is that the IP is then made widely available (as well as eventually entering the public domain) and can be built upon for personal use, commentated u…

I would argue this is better than congress passing new legislation because congress is broken and corrupt. If congresss were to write new legislation on DRM it would make things worse since they always take the copyright maximalist position since that's what corporate lobbyists want.

Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#48
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also true of elevators. The vendors intentionally write awful code so that only they can fix it.

This is quite horrifying. I am not sure if the elevator ride will be the same again for me.

My building replaced its elevators last year, and one car still has an “activate Windows” overlay in the corner of the screen. A recent change to the floor selection wallpaper has somehow resulted in the button font in another car mysteriously reverting to Verdana.

All I can do is remind myself there’s a mechanical interlock to keep the car from free-falling.

Post reply on HN