Scott L. Vernick was quoted in the Marketplace article, "A Story of Dirty Emissions...and Copyright Law." Full text can be found in the September 28, 2015, issue, but a synopsis is below.
Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998, it can be risky to poke around under the hood of a car to examine the software code the car utilizes, and circumventing the encryption on such software has been made unlawful by Congress.
According to Scott L. Vernick, a noted privacy attorney, automakers have a legitimate concern in trying to protect their copyrighted intellectual property and they don't want cyber-thieves or competitors stealing their software and trade secrets.
"Piracy is a huge issue," Vernick said. "And no one wants to make it easy for them – particularly in light of the amount of industrial espionage and cyber-hacking that's going on today."
But Vernick does agree with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and consumer advocates that independent researchers looking into pollution or safety and security problems should be shielded when accessing the software.
Click here to view the full article.
Originally published by Marketplace.
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