EFF: EFF vs IoT DRM, OMG!
EFF vs IoT DRM, OMG! What with the $400 juicers and the NSFW smart fridges , the Internet of Things has arrived at that point in the hype cycle midway between “bottom line” and “punchline.” Hype and jokes aside, the reality is that fully featured computers capable of running any program are getting cheaper and more powerful and smaller with no end in sight, and the gadgets in our lives are transforming from dumb hunks of electronics to computers in fancy cases that are variously labeled “car” or “pacemaker” or “Alexa.” We don’t know which designs and products will be successful in the market, but we’re dead certain that banning people from talking about flaws in existing designs and trying to fix those flaws will make all the Internet of Things’ problems worse. But a pernicious American law stands between the Internet of Defective Things and your right to know about those defects and remediate them. Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act bans any act that weakens ...