war between car manufacturers and aftermarket

0patience

A bit back, Rain posted an article about DMCA and car manufacturers.
In the past couple weeks, a war has been brewing between the car manufacturers and the aftermarket.
SEMA, AAPEX, AAA, AutoZone/Alldata, iFixit, NAPA and a list of other organizations are fighting this.

They are trying to use the DMCA to say that you do not own your vehicle, only a license to use the vehicle.
Not to be able to modify it or even work on it.
My question to one of the folks involved was how is a vehicle different than a PC?
You can put what ever operating system on a PC, modify it, change programming and all that on a PC.
How can a car be covered when a PC isn't?

The scary thing is, that this is being determined by the Copyright office.

Manufacturers are trying to prevent any "unauthorized" work on a vehicle.
Meaning YOU won't be able to work on it. Independant shops will disappear or pay HUGE fees to work on cars, Dealers will be the only ones authorized to work on your vehicle.
Costs to repair vehicles will become so expensive, millions of vehicles will be on the road at the brink of falling apart, because no one will be able to afford the repairs.

Parts will become black market items. Criminals (because they will be breaking the law) will be the new mechanics.

This completely voids the Right to Repair Act.
And if you don't think this is huge, think of the consequences should this go through.
This is only the beginning of what can be affected if car manufacturers get this pushed through.
You won't be allowed to install anything in your car. You won't be able to change the stereo, install a GPS, wire in anything or change a lightbulb.
Then other industries will jump on this bandwagon.
Anything with software in it, will be a target. Nothing will be safe from this.
If you are a DIYer, anything in your home with software will be off limits.
Pump goes out in washer? You either replace it (the machine) or take it to an authorized repair center.
No more replacing things yourself.

This will affect thousands of companies, workers and consumers.
Imagine no auto parts stores, no independant repair shops, no oil change places.
Imagine having to take your vehicle to a dealer for everything and paying whatever they decide they want to charge you, because there will be no competition.

The US will become like Cuba. People will repair the older vehicles that aren't covered by the DMCA.

bert873

Haven't heard about this but it is definitely scary cause I'm definitely a DIYer. I'm sick of everyone trying to have a hand in how I take care of my property. If they're going to say we don't "own" the vehicle then the upfront costs of acquiring said vehicle should be lower. I'm not paying full price on something I don't have total ownership over.

blutattoo

In a sense BMW does this already. Their DME in all new cars (2012+) is encrypted with NSA level security, so only those with the encryption key may use all of the on-board diagnostics or tune the engine in anyway. Aftermarket tuners can longer flash the ECU for more power. They must use piggy backed hand held tuners that don't have total control over the DME. Since almost all BMW's will be turbocharged they want to restrict people from making horsepower gains at the expense of reliability, plus whenever they want to put out a mid cycle refresh they can re-flash their own ECU to add HP and TQ gains they could have had in the first place. Freakin stinks if you like to customize your car. I'm not sure about other manufacturers, but they are extremely rigid about it. Why let a tuner make that extra money, when you can offer it as a $2K option that takes ten minutes to do with a laptop.

0patience

Here is the latest article I could find.

0patience

blutattoo:

In a sense BMW does this already. Their DME in all new cars (2012+) is encrypted with NSA level security, so only those with the encryption key may use all of the on-board diagnostics or tune the engine in anyway. Aftermarket tuners can longer flash the ECU for more power. They must use piggy backed hand held tuners that don't have total control over the DME. Since almost all BMW's will be turbocharged they want to restrict people from making horsepower gains at the expense of reliability, plus whenever they want to put out a mid cycle refresh they can re-flash their own ECU to add HP and TQ gains they could have had in the first place. Freakin stinks if you like to customize your car. I'm not sure about other manufacturers, but they are extremely rigid about it. Why let a tuner make that extra money, when you can offer it as a $2K option that takes ten minutes to do with a laptop.

And this is one of the things that has SEMA in an uproar.
Manufacturers fail to realize that the aftermarket is a huge deciding factor in vehicle purchases.
If there is nothing available for a vehicle in the aftermarket, why buy their brand?
Every SEMA/AAPEX convention I have been to, some of our lengthy discussions have been the availability of aftermarket "add-ons" and diagnostic information.

And they fail to realize that amateur racing is also a fairly large industry.
If folks can't race, then what? As long as there has been vehicles (chariots, wagons, bicycles, horse, etc), there has been racing and the racer's ability to modify what ever they were racing.
Take that away and then what?
And what happens when a new manufacturer comes along who puts their vehicle out there with open source software?

Rain

DMCA this son! Computer gaming would be done...and that would make me sad.

Gray4lines

I know almost nothing about cars and this makes me mad. First, how insulting to imply that no one but dealers are competent enough to work on a car. Second, don't tell me I don't own the car in its entirety. Who's name is on the title?? Who makes the payment every month? I'll do what I **** want with it. ...Biggest bunch of bullshit. And you are absolutely right; this is no different than computers, phones, anything software...

jd50ae

You know something. I am reading a lot more into this.

When the tornado wiped us out, I had the thought of retrieving all the copper cable we had just put down (to make a few bucks) at the destroyed house. The electric company employees who had installed it had already been there and taken it. A neighbor was driving by and asked them why they were taking the copper and they told him "he was only renting it".

In the future how much of what we take for granted will be rented? How much of what we thought we owned will belong to someone else? No, it couldn't happen, right?

0patience

Yep. Just like you don't really own much of anything.
You really don't own your home, it still belongs to the govt.
You are just leasing it from them. 
Try not paying your taxes on it and see if you still own it.

30 years ago, no one ever gave any thought to not being able to modify their vehicle.
Granted, with emissions starting, we all knew there would be some compromises, but no one ever gave any consideration to manufacturers claiming ownership of vehicles.

Even in 1996 when OBD2 became introduced, OBD2 operating systems were supposed to be open source and the manufacturer's "enhanced software" was theirs.

One thing I did discuss with some folks is that if the manufacturers want to claim ownership to every vehicle they sell, then they should be burdened with the costs associated in disposing of EVERY vehicle they sold.
And they should do so in an environmentally conscious way.