Under a recently issued series of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemptions, vehicle owners will soon legally be allowed to access the vehicle’s software. The Library of Congress, whose copyright office issues such exceptions every three years, permitted access to the software for, among other reasons, diagnosis, repair and modifications. The exceptions will go into effect in one year, and they must be renewed in three years. They also apply to certain agricultural vehicles, such as tractors. Vehicle owners still may not extract code, replicate it, and sell it.

How vulnerable is your vehicle's computer system to hacking? Read more about Copyright Protection.

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In addition to Thriving Attorney, Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and transactional law firm located in Dallas, Texas.  He also co-founded Project K, a charity devoted to changing the world one random act of kindness at a time.  Click to read more about Darin Klemchuk's practice as an intellectual property lawyer.