Mazda’s DMCA takedown kills a hobbyist’s smart car API tool

DocMcStuffin@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 728 points –
Mazda’s DMCA takedown kills a hobbyist’s smart car API tool
arstechnica.com

Mazda is angry a customer used an API in a manner they couldn't control. You can read the DMCA takedown notice here.

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This doesn't make any sense. API requests are not proprietary.

Yep, this looks like a blatant abuse of the DMCA by Mazda. Either Mazda is engaging in scummy behavior or they need better lawyers. Either way, it makes me want to never buy another Mazda.

I’ve already added them to my internal list of bad actors I won’t work with.

That doesn't stop anybody. Just this morning Amazon sent out a wave of C&Ds because people were using their public APIs to access "proprietary data."

"How dare you use our public APIs that we made available publicly for others to use!"

Hahahahha holy shit how did that get past legal

It reads to me like: "this app does the same thing as our app therefore they must have copied our code; there is no other possible explanation". Cool story, bro. I hope the developers will fight back but that takes lots of money.

The article states this was a hobby of his and he won't be defending it as it would entail financial cost of mounting a legal defense.