Comment by elahieh
3 days ago
A cryptography angle in the article. Would this be illegal in the US under DMCA?
One of the biggest compatibility challenges, Vallette said, was finding a way to work with Bosch's mid-drive motors. The communications between a Bosch motor and battery are encrypted; after "a serious effort," Gouach's app and battery should work with them, Vallette said.
It really depends. The DMCA does have limited exemptions for reverse engineering for interoperability. The EFF has a good overview: https://www.eff.org/issues/coders/reverse-engineering-faq (search for DMCA). My personal takeaway is that this question cannot be definitely answered outside of court.
And it should soon be illegal under EU right to repair law as well.
France has some reverse engineering exemptions, and I believe compatibility is one of them.
...uhh, yeah, certainly seems like a buried lede. What precisely can I do with Gouach's app and a Bosch mid-drive?
We managed to reverse-engineer the protocol and to make our battery communicate with the Bosch controllers!
What happens when Bosch changes the protocol / encryption just for the heck of it, are you guys back to square one?
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