The argument is that this would put ownership back in the hands of, well, the vehicle owners. It'd give them the freedom to mod their car as they see fit instead of an OEM locking performance to its own parameters. This would also have an impact on the repair industry. While an independent garage or body shop has access to basically anything needed to fix your car, there are a few specific operations that can only be done by, say, a Ford or Chevy dealership due to the needed proprietary tools; this could expand in scope. Autoblog's sources argue that in this case, the DMCA could be used to extend a monopoly (as has apparently been done in other industries) and eliminate the customer's right to choose where they can have their vehicle fixed.

Yes, there's a lot going on here, but there's precedent that the courts aren't exactly keen on letting the DMCA intrude on consumer rights. In 2005, the US Court of Appeals ruled against Lexmark when it tried invoking the DMCA to keep third parties from manufacturing cheap print cartridges for its printers. Hopefully something similar can happen here as well.

[Image credit: Alamy]