End of the shade tree mechanic? Digital Millennium Copyright act once again...

[Totem Polar]

trying to eff it all up for the rest of us.

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/20/a...s-car-repairs/

"Automakers are supporting provisions in copyright law that could prohibit home mechanics and car enthusiasts from repairing and modifying their own vehicles.

In comments filed with a federal agency that will determine whether tinkering with a car constitutes a copyright violation, OEMs and their main lobbying organization say cars have become too complex and dangerous for consumers and third parties to handle."

That's just f*ckng un-American. I have aftermarket kit on my daily driver right now. Ratporkers.

[GardoneVT]

trying to eff it all up for the rest of us.

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/20/a...s-car-repairs/

"Automakers are supporting provisions in copyright law that could prohibit home mechanics and car enthusiasts from repairing and modifying their own vehicles.

In comments filed with a federal agency that will determine whether tinkering with a car constitutes a copyright violation, OEMs and their main lobbying organization say cars have become too complex and dangerous for consumers and third parties to handle."

That's just f*ckng un-American. I have aftermarket kit on my daily driver right now. Ratporkers.

In all fairness , if you think there's derp in the gun business you should see the car modding scene.Most individuals have as much business modifiying their cars as they do dremeling their 1911s.Except they dont endanger the motoring public when their monkey'd with handgun/shotgun/rifle poops the bed.

Im not naive to the cash grab aspect of this, but the automakers have a point.

[fixer]

Yeah I'm not exactly sure there is much in the way of a copyright infringement if I change the front seal and water pump on my GT mustang. Big stretch of legal imagination there.

However if I make $100,000+ advertising that I have some super special method of changing Ford Motor Company front engine seals then I can see a slim change of a copyright case being substantive.

In comments submitted so far, automakers have expressed concern that allowing outsiders to access electronic control units that run critical vehicle functions like steering, throttle inputs and braking "leads to an imbalance by which the negative consequences far outweigh any suggested benefits," according to the Alliance of Global Automakers. In the worst cases, the organizations said an exemption for enthusiasts "leads to disastrous consequences."

This is a shot at 'tuners' and the billion dollar industry in programming ECUs. I've personally known tuners that had to go to court because an automaker did not like the fact that the person was operating a business mostly on the specialized knowledge of the source code in the ECU.

Automakers need to tread lightly here. Customers enjoy having a car that is easy to repair and modify to their liking.

[farscott]

I've personally known tuners that had to go to court because an automaker did not like the fact that the person was operating a business mostly on the specialized knowledge of the source code in the ECU.

I have been on the other side of this, where warranty claims were filed after "tuners" did their thing and the changes trashed components, including catalytic converters. That, in turn, created a violation of air quality/emissions regulations that were caught in state-mandated testing. I have also seen cases where safety-critical functionality was disabled. Believe it or not, there are some reasons for the restrictions and cautions placed in these electronic modules, and some of these "tuners" have no clue about the system interactions.

If it was my way, the ECU and GEM would be OTP (one-time programmable) devices, but there is no way that the companies are going to do that as a software upgrade would require a hardware swap. That is both time-intensive and expensive.

[GardoneVT]

Automakers need to tread lightly here. Customers enjoy having a car that is easy to repair and modify to their liking.

Which customers? I ask as most "normal" car buyers could care less.

As to modifying, a very rare number of shops and people actually modify cars well enough to really improve them.Most folks toss parts on the car to make it do stuff it was never designed for.Having gone to high school in the early 00's, I was on the ground floor of the "Tuner Craze" period. As it turns out, you cant bolt a 100 shot nitrous kit to a Ford Taurus and suddenly have a Corvette.

Even if the Taurus ,through some combination of aftermarket parts,is faster then a Corvette ....the Chevy was engineered to go fast and to do so reliably and safely.The Ford was built to be a family car, a fact soon learned when my car club pal started going through transmissions, CV joints, and clutches like they were candy.

[RevolverRob]

First off, this is ostensibly a free damn country. If I want to stick a nasty bodykit and horrible tune on my car, as long as it is not unsafe and passes my state inspection, I should be free to do it, period.

Less important are tuners, many of whom do high quality work, by the way. This is about car companies, deliberately eliminating the ability for many kinds of problems to be assessed and addressed, by anyone they deem 'not certified'. In this way, they deliberately exercise control of products that, ostensibly, you own. If modifications are a real problem, deny warranty service and void the warranty agreement, which companies and dealers have done for decades. See past superficial "car modifications can be bad" stage and get to the heart of the matter...large automakers deliberately want to pick your pocket, by establishing a monopoly on who can work on their cars.

Already existing are "Factory/Warranty Approved Tuners"...who pay licensing fees to Ford/GM/Etc to have early access to cars and programing...pretty soon those will be the only games in town if this passes. Can't pay your fees? See you in court. Next will be "Factory Approved Non-Dealer Technicians" who pay licensing fees. Like your mechanic? Too bad he will be put out of business if he doesn't pay the corporate monopoly extortion fee. This is an extremely dangerous precedent to for future vehicles and future service corporations...VERY dangerous.

-Rob

[benEzra]

As I understand it, this is not just about tuning; this would make it a crime for a third party company to offer a diagnostic tool that could tell the car's owner what trouble codes the car's networked systems are throwing, since such codes are usually hidden/encrypted except for the handful of codes required to be user-accessible under OBDII. Unless that third party company paid huge bucks to the OEM for the privilege, and priced the unit out of reach of the DIY'er, of course...

[RoyGBiv]

First off, this is ostensibly a free damn country. If I want to stick a nasty bodykit and horrible tune on my car, as long as it is not unsafe and passes my state inspection, I should be free to do it, period.

Less important are tuners, many of whom do high quality work, by the way. This is about car companies, deliberately eliminating the ability for many kinds of problems to be assessed and addressed, by anyone they deem 'not certified'. In this way, they deliberately exercise control of products that, ostensibly, you own. If modifications are a real problem, deny warranty service and void the warranty agreement, which companies and dealers have done for decades. See past superficial "car modifications can be bad" stage and get to the heart of the matter...large automakers deliberately want to pick your pocket, by establishing a monopoly on who can work on their cars.

Already existing are "Factory/Warranty Approved Tuners"...who pay licensing fees to Ford/GM/Etc to have early access to cars and programing...pretty soon those will be the only games in town if this passes. Can't pay your fees? See you in court. Next will be "Factory Approved Non-Dealer Technicians" who pay licensing fees. Like your mechanic? Too bad he will be put out of business if he doesn't pay the corporate monopoly extortion fee. This is an extremely dangerous precedent to for future vehicles and future service corporations...VERY dangerous.

-Rob

Well said.

[dano1200r]

This is an offshoot of what John Deer and others are doing to farmers. The company's won't let them fix their own tractors and combines. This has been a while in the making.

Dan

[orionz06]

This is an offshoot of what John Deer and others are doing to farmers. The company's won't let them fix their own tractors and combines. This has been a while in the making.

Dan

What are they doing exactly?


It's my car. If I wanna slap a wing on a FWD car and pay someone to disable all the safety features and burn a hole in the cat that's my call. If I wanna smash it with a hammer that's my call.