The US Congress deems it legal if DRM (digital rights management) and TPM (technological protection measure) are thwarted, modified if you want to repair your device.

Motherboard reports that the Congress has modified the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (the DMCA) in a positive way for the customers, permitting legal shops and customers to legally hack their smartphones, tablets, TVs, and other mobile computing devices’ firmware, where multiple TPM could be between the customer and a working machine. They are now allowed to circumvent the DRM and the TPM to diagnose, maintain, or repair the device.

The exemption includes „computer programs, where the circumvention is undertaken on a lawfully acquired device or machine on which the computer program operates, or is undertaken on a computer, computer system, or computer network on which the computer program operates with the authorization of the owner or operator of such computer, computer system, or computer network, solely for the purpose of good-faith security research and does not violate any applicable law, including without limitation the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986.” With video games, it’s also legal „when the copyright owner or its authorised representative has ceased to provide access to an external computer server necessary to facilitate an authentication process to enable gameplay.” They have permission „copying and modification of the computer program to restore access to the game for personal, local gameplay on a personal computer or video game console.” An example to such a DRM could be Denuvo on PC: you regularly have to connect to Denuvo’s servers to authenticate your game, and if you are offline or the servers are down, you are locked out of it. (Which has happened before!)

PCGamer asks a good question regarding Apple MacBooks and if the exclusions cover them – if it’s not an authorised repair shop, the device will stop functioning altogether as this is how Apple has designed them. The authorised repairs include „calling home” to Apple’s servers…

Still, the customers took another step closer to legally repair their devices if they break – with games, there will be examples of it. For example, the 2015 Need For Speed game requires a connection to Electronic Arts’ servers to play. If they go down, you won’t be able to play NFS anymore…

Source: PCGamer