It’s quite uncomfortable to think, for instance, that the pacemaker some people have in their chest—which provides electrical signals that make their heart pump blood and keep them alive, is a legal black box. In other words, it’s illegal to tinker with the device for any reason whatsoever—even if all you want to do is evaluate its mechanism for potential vulnerabilities or malfunctions. This is a direct result of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, an act that creates a wide range of protection to those who hold a copyright for their intellectual property. The thing is, the DMCA treats all intellectual property as the same thing, even if it’s a life-saving piece of technology. A safety system for a nuclear power plant, a pacemaker, and a Taylor Swift song are all protected in the same manner.
