> MNAO analyzed some of the code and determined that the code provides functionality same as what is currently in Apple App Store and Google Play App Store.
Is this really legal? Because in my mind, providing the same functionality does not violate copyright, since the actual intellectual material is new. And I don't think Mazda has a patent on the ability to control your vehicle over an API.
> (A) No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201
As I understand it, car manufacturers prevent independent repair shops from lawfully obtaining some of the diagnostics information in the onboard computer by encrypting it with a key that sits on the very same drive. Said encryption is the "technological measure that effectively controls access" and using the key to decrypt it is "circumvention" -- naturally, of the "effective" access control.
(https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?def_id=17... to “circumvent a technological measure” means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner)
Mazda might be interpreting the SSL certificate as a similar measure and therefore use of the certificate to decrypt traffic as a similar violation.