RighteousDeuce

What's the actual impact of a law making it illegal to hack your car's computer, or bypass restrictions on a coffee maker, or whatever? Would penalties be directed more at the consumer who was "breaking the law" or the parties providing the information or tools to the consumer?

Wow. I had absolutely no idea there could be consequences beyond attempts to reduce competition and consumer choice. Thank you both for taking the time to answer our questions and thanks for the links to the petitions.

EFF Donation Page, for anyone interested.

increasing our risk of undetected security vulnerabilities.

That's a great point that I hadn't considered at all. Attempts to prevent consumers and interested parties from figuring out how things work would almost certainly stifle efforts (to some degree) to find security vulnerabilities in our products. Parties who already intend to break the law with their activities would be far less hesitant to find the vulnerabilities and use them for malicious purposes than curious parties who are trying to do good or simply satisfying their own curiosity. I can see how laws like this might actually tip the scales in favor of those who want to cause harm than those who are trying to do good.

Thank you both for taking the time to answer our questions and thanks for the links to the petitions.

EFF Donation Page , for anyone interested.

Thanks for letting us know about Public Knowledge. I just signed up for their newsletter.