Copyright law is bricking your game console. Time to fix that.

It’s not only game consoles (though that’s a good angle to cover), it’s many items.

Game consoles aren’t the only things that are illegal to fix. Philips is suing companies who repair medical equipment for hospitals, arguing that they have circumvented digital locks in the course of their work. Sound familiar? That’s because there’s not much practical difference between the software in your console, your smartphone, or a ventilator. They’re all just computers. But the Copyright Office insists on defining these categories so narrowly that we have to apply for separate exemptions for each type of product.

I’m still angry at the shit-for-brains mooks who said it was “impossible” that the DMCA would ever apply to physical products when I argued against the law for just this reason way back in 1998.

They were wrong and I was right. Didn’t matter, though. Idiots still won.