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Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

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Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#81
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.

Used to work in the centre point tower on Tottenham Court Road.

The lifts had no buttons inside the car, your security tag would program in the floor, so you had to get in the right one otherwise you’d be stuffed.

There was a restaurant open to the public at the top, so in the evening the lifts would be full of forlorn diners trying to find their way out.

The computer would often crash and reboot mid journey - the lift would stop, the lights would go out and the screen would run through a boot sequence, before starting up again.

I once saw a technician tinker the system and he genuinely had a bunch of five inch floppy disks.

Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#83
post #65
post #56

As an automotive mechanic, this is awesome. You have no idea how many sensors/controllers in a car can only be reset by violating the DRM. Example: the suspension control computer for newer fords (so far just raptor and newer commercial F series) is separate from the ECU, and if it faults out you need to buy a new $2500 computer and sensor pack. You can, however, replace a commonly blown diode or fuse on the computer…

> With a raspberry pi and a bit of python however you can reset this tamper code once the whole assembly is closed. This sentence is interesting to me. It tells me that now mechanics need to learn programming skills to be successful. Software really is eating the world...

mechanics don't need to learn programming, but there is a growing industry of people making tools for this kind of thing. It has been around a long time in the aftermarket performance world. People have been reprogramming ecus or attaching add on ecus that intercept signals for a long time.

Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is that the case? I have read where Denuvo has been pretty effective for various games. I believe it eventually ends up getting cracked, but they've said the main goal is to delay it not to eliminate it as they feel the latter is impossible (and probably so, especially without impairing the enjoyment of their paying customers).

Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#86
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…

Breaking DRM should be legal to begin with if done for any legitimate purpose. Stuff like DMCA 1201 should not even exist.

Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#87

Would this apply to say, a third-party bought Cisco device? For those who don't know, Cisco devices have software that is non-transferable, despite being required to use the hardware, which can be freely sold. So technically if you sell a Cisco device to someone else, it can no longer be legally used because the software on it is pirated. Wouldn't this exemption arguably guarantee your ability to use the hardware you…

I think this ruling would apply to anyone who wanted to bypass controls Cisco might have in place to prevent other software from running, e.g. a custom non-Cisco OS. I don't think it would give you the right to run Cisco's software.

Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#88
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With a raspberry pi and a bit of python however you can reset this tamper code once the whole assembly is closed. This sentence is interesting to me. It tells me that now mechanics need to learn programming skills to be successful. Software really is eating the world...

Is this true? There are mechanics everywhere, so why would every one need to learn to program something that could be made by one and sold as a commercial (or open source) project? Sure, there are many types of cars and situations that need handling, but there are far more mechanics than that. I'm genuinely asking this because I often question whether it's true that "everyone should learn to program", or it's more li…

That's certainly true for common problems on common vehicles, but I imagine there is a growing niche of mechanics understand the computer systems behind modern cars more deeply.

Will that commercial product still be sold in 30 years to help repair a "classic" Tesla?

Re: Copyright Office Ruling Imposes Sweeping Right to Repair Reforms

#89
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With a raspberry pi and a bit of python however you can reset this tamper code once the whole assembly is closed. This sentence is interesting to me. It tells me that now mechanics need to learn programming skills to be successful. Software really is eating the world...

I'm convinced most successful mechanics could be successful programmers. The skill set of looking at a problem and debugging until you really understand the architecture and design of what you're looking at is very similar in both fields.

American McGee is probably the most famous example of this.

> Dead-end jobs followed – washing dishes, polishing rings at a jewelry store, ringing orders at a record store and, finally, fixing Volkswagens at Uncle J.O.'s auto repair shop.

> The tinkering that's required of mechanics appealed to the teenage hacker. The $6-an-hour job "was the first time I ever felt like I accomplished something at work," McGee said.

> On breaks, covered in grease, he'd write inventory and customer tracking applications for the shop.

https://www.wired.com/2000/12/the-great-american-mcgee-game/

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