today in dc

Trei, Peter ptrei at rsasecurity.com
Tue Jul 30 06:49:06 PDT 2002


> Declan McCullagh[SMTP:declan at well.com] wrote:
> 
> no, not a joke. yes, this is clearly an important thing for our 
> congresscritters to be doing.
> 
> SENATE COMMERCE, SCIENCE AND TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE
> Consumer Protection
> Consumer Affairs, Foreign Commerce, and Tourism Subcommittee hearing
> on improvement in consumer choice with regard to automobile repair
> shops.
	[...]

Actually, this clicks neatly onto cp debates over open vs closed
systems, TCPA, DRM, and 'freedom to hack'.

Most modern cars are substantially computerized. Diagnosing a
problem usually involves hooking up a PC to a port on the car's
engine management system, and studying the readouts.

The 'problem' that the congresscritters are trying to 'solve' is
that some car manufacturers are now closing this interface -
they are refusing to document the protocols, and/or encrypting
the data.

As a result, the manufacturers are able to restrict who has
access to this diagnostic data, and are using this power to
shut out independent repair shops and other competition to
their own dealerships. The meeting is going to discuss 
whether 'something should be done'. I have no idea what will
happen, if anything.

So, let's see:

* The manufacturers are using DRM technology, including crypto,
to restrict access to the data.
* If you reverse-engineered the system, the DMCA could get
involved (not sure on this one).
* The manufacturers are closing the system to outside inspection,
and actively working to make it impossible for owners to tinker with 
or modify their own cars. 
* There is absolutely no benefit to the car's owner - this is simply
large corporationsfiguring out another way to get more revenue.

This is essentially 'Palladium for cars'.

Peter Trei





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