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.

The organization that represents Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s works has petitioned the U.S. government to restrict the right to repair a religious artifact called an E-Meter. This device is core to Scientology practices but the group argues exemptions allowing device hacking should not apply to equipment restricted to trained users. Experts believe the E-Meter is the targeted device, which the Church says requires specific Scientologist operation. Documentation shows the E-Meter updater software mandates registration, including a membership number, suggesting repair restrictions. The language used in the petition matches stipulations Scientology requires for E-Meter use and purchase agreements. In short, the Church appears to be attempting to prevent independent E-Meter repair or experimentation through copyright exemption restrictions.

  •  jarfil   ( @jarfil@beehaw.org ) 
    21•10 months ago

    Well now, let’s not disparage the insides of a bullshit machine; I got a discounted “ghost detector” on eBay, the insides are an antenna and a low frequency electric field detector… if you forget about the outside “ghosts” part, it makes for a decent live wire detector (oh noes, there’s ghosts in my walls! /s).

    I used it to found out which way to plug an unpolarized box fan plug into an unpolarized socket, so it doesn’t keep the motor hooked to live all the time.

    If we could see the insides of the “e-meter”, who knows what practical uses could be found for it!