The U. S. Copywright office is holding a series of public comment sessions on a proposed exemption to the existing software licensing laws, which would allow independent repair shops, small manufacturers, and hobbyists to modify the software in a car that they own. Simply put, the auto manufacturers, including Mazda, are claiming that all of the software in a car, and it is a substantial amount in a new car, is not owned by the car owner, but only licensed to the buyer. The following link will give you a small taste of what is being claimed by many manufacturers, including GM, and most performance car manufacturers.


http://copyright.gov/1201/2015/comme..._1201_2014.pdf


I'd be very interested in any comments from anyone who is interested in reading the above pdf.

 

This will only serve to hurt sales, and they will soon realize this if they haven't already. I don't want to believe any auto maker is foolish enough to do this. What will happen is people will be afraid to buy a car because breathing on it will void their warranty or have whatever other negative repercussion, so they'll buy a car that doesn't have that stipulation.

For those of us who realize the defense of this action with the statement of "we know our cars best" is completely false, we'll simply hack what we need to hack and proceed with modifications as we have been doing for years already. We already violate emissions and safety protocols in our cars. We remove vehicle speed limiters, we change the tune, we add antilag, you name it. To think they can prevent an entire community from doing what they do is naive and, frankly, insulting.

In short? I'm not worried at all about this.

 

Makes sense to me. Just like most software you own on your computer why would you own the software in your car. As a practical matter I can't imagine it hurting sales or anyone even caring. Only the most passionate enthusiasts would ever mess with it and for the vast VAST majority of Miata owners it would have no impact.

 

Have you considered software updates?


Any updates could be charged for by the manufacturer, and made mandatory by the Federal regulatory agencies. Any ECU flashes would be immediately obsolete, if you could even get one legally.


You might end up paying for annual software updates without a choice. Paranoid....perhaps, but how many of us are still running Windows 3.1?

 

Still don't see it being a problem. If they charge for such updates initially and customers push back on it the market will correct in short order by including it in the purchase price of the car or make it part of an attractive maintenance plan. They will not let it hurt sales for long if at all. A bigger issue to me would be the potential to have to re-register the software in the used car market and them trying to charge for that.

As for ECU flashes again you are talking about only hard core enthusiasts and it will not affect the vast majority of owners. I don't know or have any experience with the Mazda computer but I own an HPTuners license for the Camaro computer in my Miata and tweak the tune all the time. There are several companies that make tuners for my car and there is no parameter that is not editable in the GM ecu. I would assume someone makes a similar tuner for Mazdas and there is nothing any manufacturer can make that hacks can't work around.

I don't think you are paranoid and you raise a valid concern but I have every confidence in the after market entrepreneurs to work around it - if there is a market for it...