Break DRM Legally
KEEPING OLD SOFTWARE and hardware going can be problematic, thanks to Digital Rights Management, but help is at hand from the Library of Congress. Every three years, it carries out a copyright exemptions review; this year, it’s decided that hacking DRM to repair or maintain hardware is legal. The last review, in 2015, included tractors as an example of what could be legally hacked, after farmers complained at John Deere’s tactics to prevent home maintenance. This year, it has widened the scope to include more devices, making it OK to circumvent hardware and software designed to stop you altering your legally acquired consumer electronics. So, you can crack open a smartphone or laptop, bypass the protection, and repair or customize.
It applies to software, too, useful to keep abandoned online games running. San Francisco’s Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment tries to keep many old games going as part of its exhibits, and has campaigned for changes to the law. There are limits, though: You can’t make hacked games publicly available, for example. You may have the right to try to change or fix something, but the manufacturer still has no limit on how difficult it can make this. It doesn’t have to supply spare parts either.
There are other signs of change. Motorola has become the first phone company to sell repair kits to enable you to fix its phones at home. The kits are mostly battery and screen-replacement ones, and include all the specialist tools you need. The Federal Trade Commission has also handed out warnings to Microsoft and Sony that they can’t tell people that opening their consoles voids the warranty. It doesn’t.