Mazda false DMCA takedown notice Home Assistant App

Mazda brand cars allow remote access to certain functions of the vehicle via servers owned by the company. To access these functions, Mazda provides an official app for the smartphone. After an open source project emerged that integrated support for Mazda vehicles into the Home Assistant suite, Mazda issued a false DMCA takedown notice causing the project to be abandoned. A year after the incident Mazda then introduced a subscription model into their app that costs $10/month locking the previously free features behind a paywall.

Background

Many vehicles sold by Mazda allow for remote access to various functions of the car. These include features such as starting the engine remotely, rolling the windows up or down, or checking the fuel level. To control the car remotely, Mazda offers an official app for your phone that connects to a server which then transmits the data to the car.

Programmer Brandon Rothweiler released an open source tool that integrates the Mazda connectivity features into the open source home management software "Home Assistant", which is an open platform that allows users to access their products via these indiviually created integrations. The program functions in essentially the same way as Mazda's official app, connecting to Mazda's servers that control your car remotely.

Malicious DMCA takedown notice and subsequent subscription fee

On October 10th 2023 Mazda issued a DMCA takedown notice to github claiming the integration that adds connectivity with Mazda vehicles infringes on their intellectual properly rights by stealing code from their official app and wanted it, along with forks of the project, removed from the website. The developer did not want to challenge the claims and took down the repository within a few days to avoid potential legal repercussions. With the repository and all its forks gone, the integration was also removed from the Home Assistant app.

The reason the DMCA takedown notice is malicious is that code from Mazda's official app is not required to develop a tool that works in a similar way. The API of the server is freely accessible and figuring out how to interact with it can be done completely without infringing on anyone's copyright.

Mazda's response

There was never a response from Mazda, but the intention and proposed solution was for people to use their official app instead.

Official MyMazda app

The official app can be used for free for a limited trial extending either 1 or 3 years depending on when the car was purchased, however, after the trial period ends a subscription fee of $10/month must be payed in order to retain the MyMazda connectivity features. The price was not known to buyers in advance, only that the service would eventually cost money in the future. The durations of the free trials were staged to expire around the same time, starting around late 2024. The shutdown of the free open source alternative just a year prior paints this in a bigger picture of anti consumer practices: First the only free alternative is shut down via a dubious cease and desist letter, then the official product starts requiring a subscription fee to be paid.

Consumer response

People were unhappy about the takedown of the open source repository as to many the unoffical app worked better and was easier to use than Mazda's own MyMazda service. Additionally, some have stated that they would not have purchased a Mazda vehicle, had they known the open source project would be struck by a DMCA claim. , which many feel is not worth the price.