Government Wants to Control Your Car and Prevent You From Tinkering Under DMCA CopyrightBy Mac Slavo How much do we truly own of our own lives, anyway? With income taxes, property taxes on homes and property, manipulations and interventions of the markets, the food supply and health care, education and many other areas, we may ultimately own very little. For now, our souls remain out of reach. Automobiles, our ability to legally drive and our inherent freedom to travel are all under systematic attack. Buying a car no longer means that you have own it, use it, alter it or modify it. Restrictions on drivers and advanced traffic monitoring are being met with the trickledown effects on auto manufacturers the rules for emissions, safety standards and environmental regulations are being used to prevent individuals from tampering with computer-regulated motor technology. It puts a whole new spin on the concept of the engine governor. In a forward-thinking post, auto/libertarian blogger Eric Peters wrote: Safety. The straight jacket is slowly tightening and, as usual, it is in the name of safety, security and peace of mind. Your rights of mobility have been restricted by the rules placed on state-licensed vehicles, on environmentally regulated engine parts, and by computer-monitored sensors that act as a black box for authorities, and check for vehicle compliance on these and other matters. Peters points to a statement from the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (a group to which all the major brands belong) arguing against allowing customers to jailbreak vehicles as they have done mobile phones: Vehicle telematics, by the way, literally involved tracking and diagnostics in the vehicles equipped with computer ECU units. Thats what it is all about. As Wikipedia notes, the major application of vehicle telematics centers around vehicle tracking monitoring the location, movements, status and behaviour of a vehicle or fleet of vehicles. Now, DMCA copyright laws will compound the already strict requirements on car manufacturers to hamstring the ability of an individual to work on or modify their own vehicle. Doing so would be noticed by the vehicle tracking systems, and would violate these regulations prompting fines, legal action or even vehicle kill switches, disabling the car and preventing the owner from using it at all. Essentially, you are free in so far as you are under their thumb and in compliance with any number of regulations. Maybe time to get back to that classic car in the garage just needs a couple of basic parts and some tweaking. You can read more from Mac Slavo at his site SHTFplan.com, where this article first appeared. 