The Copyright Office is considering applications by Industry to give Protections to Manufacturers which would restrict diagnostics and access to digital components of the item you own* and parts availability using copyright and trademark laws.

This could also leave data garnered from your device owned by the manufacturer (where you go, how fast you go...) where the 4th and 5th Amendment protections don't apply because you don't own the info....they do

*cars, motorcycle, tractors, phones, coffee machines etc etc.



If this sounds of interest to you:

http://www.digitalrighttorepair.org/




I'm about ready for a tin-foil hat...


Mike

 

If you do get a tin foil hat, does the manufacturer of said hat then own the info in your brain?

 

Event Data Loggers have been in cars for a while now, in fact 96% of new cars have them. In most vehicles, they're part of the airbag control module, and originally were included to ensure airbags deployed when they were supposed to.
Over the years, as electronics got cheaper, smaller and smarter, event data recorders became capable of doing more than simply monitoring airbags. Automakers realized the devices could be used to provide information about the seriousness of an accident, and if a car was being operated properly when a crash occurred. Based on a separate NHTSA regulation passed in 2012, if a vehicle today does have an event data recorder, it must track 15 specific data points, including speed, steering, braking, acceleration, seatbelt use, and, in the event of a crash, force of impact and whether airbags deployed.NHTSA was going to mandate them last year but haven't issued that ruling yet. idk why the Copyright Office would be involved, you might want to do a fact check on that one...


There's a good article in Edmunds.com about them: http://www.edmunds.com/car-technolog...rash-data.html Here's what they say about data ownership and retrieval:




Getting Black Box Data
Black box data is difficult and expensive to get to, and interpreting it takes special training. Extracting the data after an accident involves using a data-retrieval tool kit that consists of hardware, software and a cable that plugs into a car's onboard diagnostics port. That's the same port mechanics use to identify engine problems and insurance companies tap as the basis for use-based insurance policies. Crash data retrieval tool kits aren't cheap, running $2,000-$10,000 and up, not including training costs.
It follows that since drivers own their cars or trucks, they own data the vehicles generate, including black box data. But because it's so difficult and costly to extract, it's virtually impossible for average car owners to do it on their own — assuming that they even want to.
Who else can access the information is a point of contention. Automakers would like the right to access the information for numerous reasons including safety, to make sure systems work the way they should and to check for defects. Other parties that want a black box's car crash data can include police and other law enforcement agencies that are investigating an accident, insurance companies looking into a claim, lawyers representing parties in car-crash lawsuits and accident reconstruction consultants working for any of the above.
In states with no black box laws on the books, "state troopers could get the data without a subpoena if there was a fatality," says Tom Kowalick, a self-taught black box expert who chairs an event data recorder standards working group that's part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Kowalick also wrote some of the black box information on the NHTSA Web site. "If they want to grab it, there's nobody saying they can't."
To rectify that situation, 15 states have passed EDR regulation over the past decade. Under the theory that car owners have privacy rights, many of the state laws require automakers to notify new-car buyers that vehicles contain black boxes, such as in the owner's manual. State laws also spell out the conditions under which police or other parties can obtain EDR information without an owner's consent, such as with a court order; for dispatching emergency personnel; diagnosing, servicing or repairing the vehicle; or probable cause in an accident. The National Council of State Legislatures maintains an updated list of state EDR laws.
Black boxes have become a battleground in states such as California, where earlier this year, insurance companies and automakers lined up on opposite sides of a black box data protection bill that would have required automakers to let car owners block or opt out of recording vehicle information. The bill didn't make it out of the state Senate Transportation Committee after heavyweights including the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers opposed it.
Earlier in 2014, two U.S. senators introduced a bipartisan bill that would provide some of the same protections on a national level. The Driver Privacy Act explicitly states that a black box's data can't be retrieved by anyone other than vehicle owners without their consent and protects any personally identifiable information. By April 2014, the bill had collected 23 co-sponsors and been approved by the Senate Commerce Committee. As of July 2014, however, no further action had been taken.

 

The link in the post above will explain much better for any wanting to fact check....and has some spare time on their hands

How it affects us:

The coding, the info etc is being considered proprietary, and since, in many cases, Patents have been denied, Parties are attempting the use Copyright Ownership to prevent the data from being seen, altered etc by the owner.

This could mean that an owner cannot reprogram the radio for, say rear speakers or to accept an XM module.
Or to taper the ABS response
Or to change mapping.
Or to say update the GPS w/ 3rd party or self created info.
If each case the device belongs to the owner.

It is wide-reaching.

I hear today the the Seahawks are trying to trademark "12" and "The Hawks"...how do i order doughnuts? and How does the Atlanta Team feel?



mike

 

Its because of $hit like this that my stuff gets older, repaired vs replaced or swapped out with something different like the thundermax.

I also personally instruct in writing that the dealer on my auto does not have permission to plug into the diagnostic port, if needed, unless i absoultely authorize it as the computer has been modifed and any damage will be their responsibility

My vehicles are not under warranty and i pay for all repairs or make them my self.

I have the ESP on one bike but know that the engine and ECM are excluded from coverage as they have been modified. I will use it for other crap that breaks or for tire and wheel but not for my modified engine which the dealer has no reason to touch.

Push comes to shove, my antique car can be put back on the road and screw EFI, i will go back to a carburetor

Its crap like this that makes me want to live like one of the Alaskan bush people.

Rant over

 

Hey, if it's something that Big Brother wants, it must be good for us, right? That's what they're always telling us, anyway.

 

Doesn't sound much different than having to take a can-bus bike back to the dealer to get the passing lights re-programmed to stay on with the high beam headlight. Why isn't that sort of thing OWNER selectable just like EITMS on/off?

 

Black box data isn't too hard to get and more and more, law enforcement are getting warrants to retrieve the data in serious accidents. Heck, in Frisco, TX, a families only car was impounded and the GPS and box removed and read to see if they they were involved in the death of their child. I know severe, but happening more and more. Not long ago, a county tried in a case where a late 50's gentleman was stopped for speeding and he fought the ticket. The county was taking it to the extreme because this guy was issuing subpoenas for everyone, being an a$$. The county responded with one for his black box data.

On to the point of this, if the law passes, it would make it even more difficult for businesses outside of the OEM to work, improve or modify the product, or without some sort of expensive licensing agreement. Think what would happen to Power Vision or Vance and Hines for our beloved Harley's. There is also a product that independents use that is a replacement to the HD Digital Tech. That would be gone too.

It gets more scary when you start thinking about just how many of our products are supported by third parties.

 

Do you know the name of the product that the independents use? Is it DTT Twin Scan?

I own a VW and purchased the Ross Tech VCDS, which turns your PC into a OE VW VAG-COM diagnostic tool. I have full access to all modules in my car that typically are only available from the tools at a VW dealership. I once mentioned to them that they should develop a similar product for the Harley-Davidson vehicles. Their response was:

"Several years ago we started a project for BMWs, BIM-COM. The big issue that came up, the project started taking away from our VW and Audi efforts. It was decided that we did not want to end like other companies that are 'jack of all trades, master of none', thus the BIM-COM was dropped

The other issue I see with us doing a Harley-Davidson diagnostics... I'm not aware of anyone here into Harley-Davidson motorcycles. As a matter
of fact, Uwe, the owner Ross-Tech, at one point purchased motorcycle based on it not having diagnostics so he wouldn't tinker with it.

Feel free to follow Uwe's business model though, surround yourself with nerds who happen to also like [insert product line here]."

 

And I thought it was crazy when my health plan read that law enforcement had the right to view my medical records. Doctor/patient privilege shot in the butt, Now my motorcycle and car can drop a dime and eat cheese on me....merica!