The US Copyright Office has granted exemptions to a provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), allowing citizens to hack their own mobile devices and car systems.
Section 1201 of DMCA prohibited bypassing of the technological methods that are used to protect copyright works.
Until now, the law restricted users from sharing HBO GO password with other users, ripping DVDs for remixing and analysing; preserving video games and running multiplayer servers after publishers have abandoned them, and jail breaking cell phones, tablets, and other portable computing devices to run third party software.
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) the exemption has cleared up several roadblocks for software communities to create customised and portable computing devices.
Auto owners can now tinker with their own vehicle, which is likely to help security researchers evaluate automotive software and learn about or improve their own cars.
US Copyright Office has also lifted the ban on archiving and preserving video games and remixing videos from DVD and Blu-Ray sources.
The new exemption is a huge step taken by the US regulators, after the Congress passed legislation last year making it legal to unlock your phone from your service provider.
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EFF said: "The new rules are long and complicated, and we’ll be posting more details about each as we get a chance to analyze them. In the meantime, we hope each of these exemptions enable more exciting fair uses that educate, entertain, improve the underlying technology, and keep us safer."
