{"id":2319,"date":"2015-08-17T17:59:02","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T22:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usagencies.processmyquote.com\/?p=2319"},"modified":"2025-02-06T13:16:21","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T21:16:21","slug":"my-car-is-paid-off-what-do-you-mean-i-dont-own-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usagencies.com\/blog\/car-insurance\/my-car-is-paid-off-what-do-you-mean-i-dont-own-it\/","title":{"rendered":"My Car is Paid Off \u2013 What Do You Mean I Don\u2019t Own It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve just made the final payment to the bank and the car now belongs to you, right? Well, not so fast \u2013 GM claims you don\u2019t own it. In fact, they\u2019ve gone so far as to say they remain the owners \u2013 you\u2019ve just licensed it. Which poses the question \u2013 why isn\u2019t GM paying for your auto insurance<\/a>?<\/p>\n

We can see you\u2019re confused. Here\u2019s why. Traditionally, there were only two possible answers to someone asking: \u201cWho owns your car?\u201d Either you do \u2013 or whoever holds the loan or lease on it does, at least until it\u2019s paid off. While GM is currently the only automobile manufacturer to make the claim so far, it\u2019s quite possible the others will follow suit.<\/p>\n

Actually, it\u2019s more or less predictable as a direct result of how U.S. law governs software copyrights. Unfortunately, it could have strange implications for car owners \u2013 or current \u201clicensees\u201d.<\/p>\n

The law behind GM\u2019s assertions, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, contains the wording: \u201cNo person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.\u201d This simply means that a company can put a \u201cdigital rights management\u201d lock on any software and extinguish the rights of everybody else to alter or tinker with that program.<\/p>\n

With virtually all newer car functions operating via software and the embedded code running in far more devices than in 1998, the DMCA\u2019s anti-circumvention clause is today much more far-reaching than it was when first written. And, this has created a potential hornets\u2019 nest for legislators.<\/p>\n

Luckily, Congress wasn\u2019t completely remiss of planning for possible future issues arising from the DMCA: Every three years, the law also requires the Librarian of Congress to consider temporarily exempting products from the anti-circumvention rule if their users can prove they\u2019re hurt by the rule.<\/p>\n

In the sixth go-round of the triennial proceeding, one of the most contentious of the 27 proposed exemptions would permit breaking \u201cdigital rights management\u201d (DRM) on a car, truck or tractor\u2019s software for \u201clawful diagnosis and repair\u201d or \u201caftermarket personalization, modification, or other improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, General Motors objected to that proposal. In a 24-page public comment the auto maker argued that \u201cthe proposed exemption could introduce safety and security issues,\u201d while GM already provides all the software tools mechanics and owners need to diagnose and fix its vehicles. In addition, GM also contended that \u201cvehicle owners do not own the vehicle software at issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, in fairness \u2013 it must be pointed out that GM isn\u2019t saying you don\u2019t own your car, only that you don\u2019t own the software in it. This is supported by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers who equated the software-ownership agreement to similar ones associated with purchasing a MacBook or Microsoft Office software.<\/p>\n

While GM declined further comment, in a statement issued by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the company warned that allowing circumvention of car codes posed potential serious risks to consumer safety and privacy as well as to the nation\u2019s clean air protection.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve seen in recent years, all software is susceptible to hacking \u2013 even the most secure. And, \u201chackers\u201d could modify the software in a car just as easily to make it less safe.<\/p>\n

When it comes to safety, you want the most protection with the best auto insurance rates available. Whether you\u2019re looking for low cost auto insurance to meet the state\u2019s mandatory minimum insurance coverage or full coverage \u2013 why not get a free auto insurance quote <\/a>today?<\/p>\n

Do you think the car and its software should both be \u201cyours\u201d to do as you wish once the vehicle is completely paid off? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve just made the final payment to the bank and the car now belongs to you, right? Well, not so fast \u2013 GM claims you don\u2019t own it. In fact, they\u2019ve gone so far as to say they remain the owners \u2013 you\u2019ve just licensed it. Which poses the question \u2013 why isn\u2019t GM paying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,19,7,12,57],"tags":[55,56,58,59],"class_list":["post-2319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-auto-insurance","category-auto-insurance-rates","category-car-insurance","category-car-insurance-quotes","category-cheap-car-insurance","tag-auto-insurance","tag-best-auto-insurance-rates","tag-free-auto-insurance-quote","tag-low-cost-auto-insurance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usagencies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usagencies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usagencies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usagencies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usagencies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2319"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.usagencies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4051,"href":"https:\/\/www.usagencies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319\/revisions\/4051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usagencies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usagencies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usagencies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usagencies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}