Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has caused a lot of grief over the years. AutoBlog reports that now car manufacturers are trying to use it to stop people from repairing and tuning their cars:
Allowing them to continue to fix their cars has become “legally problematic,” according to a written statement from the Auto Alliance, the main lobbying arm of automakers.
The dispute arises from a section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that no one thought could apply to vehicles when it was signed into law in 1998. But now, in an era where cars are rolling computing platforms, the U.S. Copyright Office is examining whether provisions of the law that protect intellectual property should prohibit people from modifying and tuning their cars.
Ridiculous, is the word that describes this best, I think.