A group representing L. Ron Hubbard asked the Copyright Office to alter a repair exemption that makes it legal to hack Scientology’s E-Meter—and lots of other electronics, too.
Every once in a while a headline really catches me off guard… This is one of those times.
Scientologists proving they are way more into ology then scient
The device itself already did that. Just another example to throw on the pile.
Wouldn’t want public to find out that the E-Meter is IIRC just a fancy resistance meter, do we?
Or how to break the DRM the company introduced just to make sure that the E-Meter cannot be used by everyone. Or that my multimeter is much cooler and has a built-in scope as opposed to their thing.
Sounds like it’s time for someone to make a FOSS E-meter
We’ll call it libreBullshit
Don’t know the first thing about these E-Meters but it’s really funny to me that they think tampering with the device could harm the Church’s reputation and goodwill. I wonder why that would be the case. If Apple doesn’t get a way out, neither does Scientology.
Scientology might yet get a way out just because they are a religion legally.
Apple is still not a religion ? They do have enough zealots to qualify :D
They’re only considered a religion legally because they illegally infiltrated the IRS and intimidated them into giving them that status. Super messed up, read up on Operation Snow White if you aren’t already familiar.
Here’s a video that goes into detail what is inside Mark-Super-7 E-Meter. https://piped.video/watch?v=N2O0oen6E90
The successor requires an online activation to be used. Unlike my UT81-B multimeter with integrated scope.
Btw i feel like we should make a mod for the E-Meter to allow users to plug in different probes to use them as proper resistance meters. You know, for the electrically inclined ex-scientologist.
Yeah no that’s not how that works. Else churches could start going around dictating how the Bibles they give out are used? If it’s given or purchased, go fuck yourself, I’m tired of entities trying to claim ownership of things that are no longer physically theirs.
They’re believing their own hype. They can relax. This is a non-issue.
People who aren’t scientologists will be unsurprised to learn that e-meters are pseudoscientific bullshit. People who are scientologists will be too brainwashed to care about trivial things like “facts” and “evidence”.
They don’t hand e-meters out like candy. You have to be with the organization for a while, and be “trained” to use it before you’re even allowed to buy one. If someone actually owns an e-meter, they’re already a true believer, critic, or just a collector of oddities. The law doesn’t need to be changed to protect scientology, and personally, I don’t think it should be.
Full article here (wayback machine; the original was partially behind a paywall for me).
All the scientology malarkey aside, it’s bananas to me that anything electronic is the purview of the US Copyright Office. It’s insane to me that the RIAA/MPAA et. al. lobbies have been so successful in getting the US government to do their bidding.
