Do You Own Your Car? John Deere, GM Say No

The proliferation of proprietary software that is included in newer vehicles has led some companies to claim that consumers should be considered licensors, rather than owners. The automotive industry has seen a surge in patenting activities, much of it related to fledgling self-driving navigational systems. Auto makers have sued independent diagnostic companies that access vehicle software for non-copyrightable material such as diagnostic codes, in effect making at-home car tinkerers into hackers. But GM and John Deere claim that allowing users to subvert electronic control units could cause software to malfunction and lead to a public safety risk. John Deere argues, “A vehicle owner does not acquire copyrights for software in the vehicle, and cannot properly be considered an ‘owner’ of the vehicle software”—a claim that has many in tech riled up. The U.S. Copyright Office will announce its decision whether or not to allow any circumvention of technological protection measures for vehicle software meant for diagnostics, repair, or vehicle modification this month.