Following up on our report from earlier this year about a coalition of auto manufacturers who’re actively trying to make it illegal for owners to modify or repair their own vehicles by way of the copyrite law using the DMCA’s section 1201 clause, a provision that governs technological barriers created to protect copyrighted work, earlier this month during a hearing conducted by the US Copyright Office, representatives from General Motors got a chance to publicly state their case.

“It is our position the software in the vehicle is licensed by the owner of the vehicle,” says Harry Lightsey, attorney for GM. “What we have in today’s world, for example, is there is a license agreement for GM’s telematics system and for the infotainment system, and those are the systems the owner interacts with and comes in direct contact with,” Lightsey said. “It would be difficult to have licenses for the myriad number of ECUs in a vehicle.”

So what’s their solution? Simply apply this idea across the entire vehicle, meaning that any modification of a GM vehicle’s electronics system would potentially be illegal.

Power adders require some tuning, without it you can’t get the full potential of the component that was installed.

Perhaps even more troubling is that the Copyright Office seems to be listening. Jacqueline Charlesworth, general counsel for the department, said she worried that by not banning consumer modification of such systems, it put used car buyers at risk:

“You’re putting that burden on buyers of many, many used cars to have that software system completely evaluated,” she said. “To me, I don’t know, that’s a troubling prospect that in an ordinary used-car transaction you have to be worried about whether there’s been a software modification.”

Fortunately there is at least one voice speaking for consumers and enthusiasts. Kyle Wiens, founder of ifixit.com argued that consumers are capable of understanding these systems too:

“I think people are starting to get more savvy,” he said. “We have had this expectation of being able to modify software. We’ve been adding apps and jailbreaking phones. So we know how to modify software. Those guys know how to modify hardware. Now it’s time for the two to get together.”

We’ll be keeping a close eye on how this story develops. Stay tuned for updates.