In Volkswagen emissions fraud scandal, proprietary software is the real villain

“Proprietary software is an unsafe building material. You can’t inspect it.”

Columbia University law professor Eben Moglen made that observation 5 years ago. It’s timely today, as the Volkswagen emissions fraud scandal–enabled by proprietary software–worsens.

Volkswagen admitted this week it altered proprietary software on 11 million VW diesel cars, so they’d pass emissions tests when they were actually belching more smog.

Read more: http://boingboing.net/2015/09/24/vwscandal.html