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Comment by bell-cot | Hacker News Reader

> But in Europe, the legality of what Dragon Sector did is murkier. [...] Cory Doctorow explained in his excellent Pluralistic blog that Article 6 of Europe's 2001 Copyright and Information Society Directive is generally stricter on DRM circumvention than Section 1201 of the DMCA, and does not have a specific repair exemption. Because of this law, Doctorow told 404 Media that "there is now an extra layer of jeopardy for these researchers. They were brave to come forward..."

If the law is huge and complex, and a large company wants to make your life hell...

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I don't think this is true. I think the legality of what they did is totally clear under article 5 & 6 of the EU Computer Programs Directive. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32...

Reverse Engineering (Decompiling) software that you own to fix errors and allow interoperability is explicitly allowed.

I think this should be filled under sabotage of critical infrastructure.

It is either that or DRM means the OEM gets to remotely shut down entire train network whenever they like? Imagine the money one could make with such a service.

From what I gathered in Polish media, the Dragon Sector's attorney has implied they are eyeing exploring this possibility legally.

yeah screw this. if they are claiming that they hacked their DRM they should absolutely counter sue that this DRM counts as sabotage and/or domestic terrorism. There was literally code in there that told the trains to stop working after X date if it sat still for X amount of time.

That's bonkers. And criminal.

Prosecution started working from statues that talk about crimes of preventing someone from operating, as well as manipulation or prevention of proper handling of data relevant to national security and/or transportation.

Neither cares about breaking DRM or IP, but third party (including vendor) manipulation.

Yes, imagine if a individual did this and not a company. A individual would probably go to jail.

I don't think that you are reading that like a lawyer would.

For example article 6, part 2 (a) does not allow the information retrieved to be used for any purpose other than establishing interoperability. The hackers stepped over that line when they released some of what they discovered for the purpose of publicly criticizing the manufacturer.

There's ECH ruling that fixing errors is legit case of interoperability.

I hope that you are correct.

I fear that (allowing for the "someone with enough money and lawyers can make your life hell" effect) you are not.

There was an EU ruling on the subject, this year, stating explicitly that you can decompile software to fix bugs, under certain restrictions.

https://www.traple.pl/legalna-dekompilacja-programu-komputer...

The article is in polish, but auto-translate should do it's job easily.

DRM is, generally, about whether or not you can copy the files, or how you use the software (whether it's licensed use).

This isn't DRM (though that's bad too). It's far worse. It's ransomware, they hijacked trains. Everyone involved should be locked in a dungeon for the better part of a century.

>If the law is huge and complex, and a large company wants to make your life hell...

Newag's revenue is about $300 million. This isn't Siemens.

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