It notes that a section of DMCA allowed vehicle manufacturers to threaten legal action against anyone who needs unlock “access controls” – a requirement aimed at protecting DRM technology but not limited to it.
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The Auto Care Association’s stance has centered on its belief that when a consumer purchases a vehicle they purchase everything – the body, seats, enging and the software that powers the vehicle. This will allow “interoperability” between different TVs, and the installation of third-party software. While previously, the jailbreaking of tablets was ruled as being illegal. Besides, video game consoles like Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox can not be jailbroken.
In other words, a museum can now legally hack into the firmware of a video game console for the express objective of ensuring that games remain playable for historical research purposes well into the future.
EFF’s remix petition was drafted and co-submitted with the Organization for Transformative Works. In addition, with this exemption now in place, hopefully there will be a greater interest in providing tools that will allow gamers to continue playing games that may have been disabled in this scenario.
This time around the group has added to the list of devices that can now be jail broken, without the infringement of any copyright laws. “This exemption will help preserve classic games in a playable form for future generations”. That runs afoul of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which prohibits tampering with copy protection.
However, the new rules do not allow vehicle owners to break any other laws, the Library said, and will not take effect for a year so the EPA and other agencies have time to prepare.
The exemptions, though they only last three years, are created to remedy that.
The Librarian also ruled that people should be able to look at software that goes into our cars. Jailbreaking: Accordingly, based on the Register’s recommendation, the Librarian adopts the following exemption: Computer programs that enable smartphones and portable all-purpose mobile computing devices to execute lawfully obtained software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole goal of enabling interoperability of such applications with computer programs on the smartphone or device, or to permit removal of software from the smartphone or device. For example, a few players may need to modify an old video game so it doesn’t perform a check with an authentication server that has since been shut down.
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The Library of Congress rejected that argument, stating that the MPAA and other opponents hadn’t presented any evidence to support their contentions that jailbreaking would result in an increase in piracy.
