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back to article US Copyright Office suggests 'right to repair' laws a good idea

Last week, to little fanfare, the US Copyright Office took its first baby steps towards stopping auto-makers wrapping their software in copyright rules. The decision is important because auto-makers use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's “technical protection measures” (TPMs) provisions to restrict diagnosis and repair to …

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  1. m0rt

    OH RLY?

    "Sorry, tinkerers, you're not included: the shift in policy is specific to repair (and recovering kit that's obsolete, that is, unsupported by the manufacturer anyhow). If you want to circumvent TPMs to modify a product, you'll have to go through Copyright Office rulemaking processes. "

    Fsck that sh -it.

    Where's me hammer?

    20 1 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: OH RLY?

      Creative breakage, anyone?

      6 0 Reply
      1. Robert Helpmann??
        Reply Icon
        Childcatcher

        Re: OH RLY?

        Creative breakage, anyone?

        Please. The correct term is "percussive maintenance".

        6 0 Reply
  2. Updraft102

    "the report suggests using the DMCA to tie up the repair market wasn't a legitimate use of the law."

    There are no legitimate uses of the law.

    34 2 Reply
    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
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      Megaphone

      There are no legitimate uses of the law.

      deserves its own topic. DMCA should just *DIE*

      there were copyright protections prior to DMCA. we didn't need "that".

      10 1 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    and recovering kit that's obsolete, that is, unsupported by the manufacturer anyhow

    WindowsXP is no longer protected then and win7 and 8 will be fixable soon,nice.

    All the forcing your users to Windows10 really was a bad idea because now the products that everyone actually wanted can be finally fixed for the user's benefit

    22 3 Reply
    1. Field Commander A9
      Reply Icon

      Re: and recovering kit that's obsolete, that is, unsupported by the manufacturer anyhow

      "can be finally fixed for the user's benefit"

      By who?

      I don't trust a random bunch of hippies scattered all over the planet to "fix" my OS.

      2 19 Reply
      1. m0rt
        Reply Icon

        Re: and recovering kit that's obsolete, that is, unsupported by the manufacturer anyhow

        You certainly can't trust the 'professionals'*...

        *Doyle and Bodie aside, obviously.

        18 1 Reply
      2. Cuddles
        Reply Icon

        Re: and recovering kit that's obsolete, that is, unsupported by the manufacturer anyhow

        "I don't trust a random bunch of hippies scattered all over the planet to "fix" my OS."

        And yet that's exactly how Linux works, as well as essentially all other open source software. Being a hippy is not mandatory, but having random people scattered all over the planet fixing things is kind of the whole point.

        25 1 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: and recovering kit that's obsolete, that is, unsupported by the manufacturer anyhow

          Being a hippy is not mandatory

          Thank God. I never really managed to get myself into this socks-in-sandals thing, and I've given up on growing a beard because it (a) itches ferociously and (b) I don't like having to sprinkle yeast in it*

          * "for yeast is yeast and nest is nest, and never the mane shall tweet."

          4 1 Reply
      3. emullinsabq
        Reply Icon
        Happy

        Re: and recovering kit that's obsolete, that is, unsupported by the manufacturer anyhow

        "I don't trust a random bunch of hippies scattered all over the planet to "fix" my OS."

        YOU don't have to. I won't step on your freedom/choice, you don't step on mine. Deal?

        24 1 Reply
        1. bombastic bob Silver badge
          Reply Icon
          Trollface

          Re: and recovering kit that's obsolete, that is, unsupported by the manufacturer anyhow

          "I won't step on your freedom/choice, you don't step on mine. Deal?"

          <sarcasm>

          You forgot, all of these *kinds* of "freedoms" are always ONE-SIDED - and the ONE side that FORCES YOU is always the winner. Enjoy your Win-10-nic! You're "free" to use it.

          </sarcasm>

          1 5 Reply
      4. Wolfclaw
        Reply Icon
        Linux

        Re: and recovering kit that's obsolete, that is, unsupported by the manufacturer anyhow

        Never heard Linus called a hippy, bad tempered, foul mouth, dictator, maybe !

        5 1 Reply
        1. m0rt
          Reply Icon

          Re: and recovering kit that's obsolete, that is, unsupported by the manufacturer anyhow

          Hey Torvalds! You BIG HIPPY!

          There. Now you have.

          10 1 Reply
      5. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: and recovering kit that's obsolete, that is, unsupported by the manufacturer anyhow

        "can be finally fixed for the user's benefit"

        By who?

        Linux people? I suspect that Wine must be pretty much moved past XP (no idea, only use Linux on servers so haven't used it).

        :)

        0 3 Reply
        1. Palpy
          Reply Icon

          Re: Windows XP fixed by who?

          ReactOS people, probably.

          But judging by the glacial progress of their project to create a binary-compatible FOSS version of Windows -- and I mean glacial -- it will be awhile yet before fruit is borne. Still, applause for all Quixotes and their Panzas.

          6 0 Reply
  4. Your alien overlord - fear me

    I want to 'fix' my DVD of Suicide Squad (and others) and the movie companies have abandoned them. Am I Ok to do stuff to them ("offsite backups" etc. !!!!) ?

    10 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      Sorry, you cannot fix that one, it's broken and anything resembling a movie are cuttings lying on the editing floor.

      9 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Make copyright and patents the same length of time, 20 years.

    18 1 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      I rather like patents to be much shorter. That way, smart ideas get to be used by others and it substantially limits the damage patent trolls can do and their income.

      1 0 Reply
  6. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    The first sentence of the second paragraph of the executive summary (executive summary - six and a half pages: do executives read that far?): "In enacting section 1201, Congress aimed to create a legal foundation to launch the global digital online marketplace for copyrighted works."

    Is everyone OK with putting an act of Congress and global in the same sentence?

    5 0 Reply
    1. Steve the Cynic
      Reply Icon

      "Is everyone OK with putting an act of Congress and global in the same sentence?"

      Depends on whether they meant for their law to have global application or that they hoped it would be used as a pattern for laws everywhere, so everyone anywhere knows what to expect wherever they try to sell something.

      The first is self-evidently bad. (US law governing a transaction negotiated in Paris between a Brit and a German?) The second, not so much.

      Up to you whether you think their motivation was the first or the second, or even something else I haven't mentioned.

      5 0 Reply

  7. This post has been deleted by its author

  8. JohnHMorris

    TPM vs TPM

    Apropos of the topic, TPM also means "third party maintenance" - formerly a major technology business category. Business volume was killed by steadily improving reliability - and vendor pushback. I suspect that the market for a new generation of both "approved" and "not approved" TPM services will have a bright future, given IoT device deployment trends. Whether board-level repair performed by SE geniuses ever comes back is not predictable.☺

    1 0 Reply

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