You Can Still Modify Your Truck
Earlier this year GM and a few other automakers lobbied against a proposed exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The exemption would allow for the diagnosis, repair, and modification of vehicle software without running afoul copyright laws. Auto manufacturers opposed this and wanted to make it illegal to access, modify, or circumvent any locks placed on vehicle software. However, the Library of Congress didn't fall for the argument and went forth with the exemption.
So all of your aftermarket programmers and tuner shops are safe. It doesn't give the green light to start rolling coal, but you can freely make lawful modifications to your vehicle without the threat of prosecution.
The most ironic part is that the EPA was one of the organizations that opposed the exemption. If the exemption had been in place before, the EPA would've probably caught on to the VW cheating sooner. The study that first found the cheating, discovered it in a very roundabout way. They had to develop mobile emissions testing equipment and drive cars around to find out what was really going on. It would've been much easier to just analyze or reverse engineer the code instead.
Link
So all of your aftermarket programmers and tuner shops are safe. It doesn't give the green light to start rolling coal, but you can freely make lawful modifications to your vehicle without the threat of prosecution.
The most ironic part is that the EPA was one of the organizations that opposed the exemption. If the exemption had been in place before, the EPA would've probably caught on to the VW cheating sooner. The study that first found the cheating, discovered it in a very roundabout way. They had to develop mobile emissions testing equipment and drive cars around to find out what was really going on. It would've been much easier to just analyze or reverse engineer the code instead.
Link
