Car-makers Now want to make it Illegal to repair or modify your own car.
Recently automakers have reached out to lawmakers to have it essentially illegal to have vehicle owners repair and or modify their own vehicles. Why do you ask? Well it has to do with copyright over modern cars ECU or Electronic Control Unit. The ECU is a computer inside modern cars that can manage the time of valves and pistons. This intern makes car engines more efficient. Now the Tuner community (those who actively improve the performance of their vehicle) often buy what are called access ports, which are devices that access a cars ECU and modify the program inside to give the car increased horsepower. The argument that automakers make is that because these are computer programs that it violates copyright on digital programs. They also make the argument that modifying a cars ecu can decrease the safety of the vehicle because the ECU also controls airbags, ant-lock brakes and other features. Also when making modifications the car becomes tricky to sell. While all of these are good points that automakers meet there are problems. First of all when you buy a product, like a car. you own the car. Thus you should be given the freedom to do anything you want to the car. As far as reprogramming the ECU that is also part of the car which means its part of the product. Plus you can always removed the access port and return the ECU program back to stock. As for selling the car, well the car would be used. So none of the money used to sell a used car goes to the automakers. Also most Tuners can’t sell their car to a dealership because of the legal complications of whether it meets safety standards and emission standards and trying to determine the value of the car can be difficult too. especially if major modifications were done to the vehicle. However tuners already know this when modifying their vehicles and if selling the car will try to sell it private party then through a dealership. What they are proposing also would make it illegal to work on your own car and would make it illegal for independent car shops to even make repairs and would force a customer to go to a dealership. This law would probably not go through as it would put a lot of independent repair shops out of business or would have to spend resources to become certified under a manufacturer to be able to make repairs.
source: http://jalopnik.com/carmakers-want-to-make-working-on-your-car-illegal-beca-1699132210