[themafia]

> a "Mecca for hackers,"

It's America. You should want that. What you don't want is a mecca for criminals and pirates. I'm not sure how fixing my own tractor leads to criminal acts and there are already robust trade rights protections in the US.

> The problem is that both sides are correct.

Isn't the whole problem here the collateral damage caused by the DMCAs provision against circumvention? Then it seems one side is completely wrong and the other side is completely correct. If you own the device then "circumvention" is meaningless. If the device can't operate without firmware then it's inside the envelope and can be circumvented fairly.

> one can imagine unintended consequences and liability cascades from imperfect repair.

Yea we'd have to develop a robust legal system for managing this; however, we could also just use the one that already exists.

[dpc050505]

> I'm not sure how fixing my own tractor leads to criminal acts

They're probably pre-criming the killdozer or something.