Pwning your life

by Nancy Sims, MTTLR Blog editor

"Void your warranty, violate a user agreement, fry a circuit, blow a fuse, poke your eye out..."

So exhorts a t-shirt on sale from Make magazine. They also sell shirts with slogans like "If you can't open it, you don't own it", and "Permission to play". Make is not remotely a unique phenomenon - Instructables, Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, and a host of other sites provide how-tos and what-ifs for the growing population of hardware modders and hackers. Make's sister publication, Craft, and sites like Etsy, and Craft Mafia, demonstrate that the sensibility isn't limited purely to hardware. It's remix culture applied to real-world, physical objects, and it's a growing phenomenon.

Hacking, remixing, modifying - whatever you call it, messing with technology, even physical objects you own, raises a host of legal issues. First of all, just opening the case of most tech objects voids the warranty. It may also void other user agreements, and as more of the technology in our daily lives requires ongoing relationships with service providers, that can be a real problem. Physical or software hacks may also violate anti-hacking laws in various jurisdictions.

The DMCA's Anti-Circumvention provisions may open tech remixers to civil or criminal liability if they bypass "access control devices" or "technological protection measures" to explore or modify their devices. While there is currently an administrative exception that allows individuals to modify cellphones to ensure compatibility with various service providers, the exception doesn't cover telling other people how to make the same modifications. Similar worries about the "no telling people how to circumvent, either" provisions delayed publication of the book "Hacking the XBox".

And yet, the community of hackers and modders continues to expand. The revolutionary, compelling, or just plain entertaining products that the maker/crafter/modder cultures produce, make it difficult to see how anyone could want to rein them in. A (very) few highlights:

• Physically "surfing" digital environments like Google Earth and World of Warcraft on the WiiFit Balance Board.
  
  Link from WiiFit Balance Board Blog
  
• Hacking Google to explore the first photos people take with their new cameras
• Adding LEDs to LEGO people
  
  (Image by Oskay)
• Gamer Cakes on Flickr - homemade cakes based on popular videogames and toys
• Chumby, a wi-fi device intended to be hacked and modified
  
  Chumby Bear, by miss_rogue
  
• For a slightly different definition of "hardware", don't miss Ikea Hacker!
• And, unquestionably the most exciting recent hacks, Johnny Lee's low-cost WiiMote hacks to produce a $40 multi-touch digital whiteboard, and a personal 3D video display
  
  
  

To get a sense of the philosophies/worldviews of makers, hackers, crafters, and modders, take a look at:

• The Make Owner's Manifesto/Maker's Bill of Rights
  
• Free Software Foundation's "Road to Hardware Free From Restrictions" paper
  
• Five Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do (video)

Explore the history of hacking:

• Homebrew Computer Club (Wikipedia entry)
• Tech Model Railroad Club (Wikipedia entry)
• The Story of Mel, from the Jargon File (note: detailed information about very early programming methods; may require some programming experience to enjoy)
• The MIT Gallery of Hacks (note: MIT has a local-culture definition of "hack" that only partially overlaps with more familiar meanings.)
  

So, what do you think? What are your favorite hacks and mods? What legal issues do you see?