Gasping for air: Our molekule bounty has been won!
Molekule is an air purifier company with a, well, less-than-pure record. When you pay $1000 for a smart air purifier, though, you probably expect it to do two at least two things: purify your air, and work with an app.
Back in September, Molekule, which makes the Air Pro and Air Mini+, pulled back on the latter. The company shut down access to the app for anyone that installed to use third-party (or, in their words, “knockoff”) filter in their air purifiers.
That is the exact kind of anti-ownership activity that we at FULU are fighting against. Molekule owners paid a premium for a smart air purifier that would allow them to “monitor, control, and improve” the air around them. They should get to use its smart functionality regardless of their choice of filter.
We got news of this right as we were assembling the list of products for our bounty program, which we designed to both draw attention to the ways that device makers seek to control the use of the devices we own, and call for changes to the law that prevent us from pushing back. Molekule’s use of DRM (digital rights management) to force device owners to buy it’s replacement filters was a perfect fit.
We’re excited to announce the winner of this bounty: Lorenzo Rizzotti (DreamingCodes). Lorenzo developed a patch for Molekule’s app which enables full remote monitoring and management functionality with Molekule air purifiers using third-party filters. It successfully bypasses the digital lock inserted by Molekule into their app and, in doing so, prevents the purifier from losing its ‘smart’ status when a third-party filter is inserted.
Taking on the bounty to try and free Molekule’s purifiers was an obvious choice for Lorenzo. “My main goal was to help spread the awareness FULU is trying to raise about ownership and the current situation where restoring a device to the functionality it originally had can put a user at legal risk,” he told us. Lorenzo proved to us that his solution worked, and we awarded him the bounty.
If only we could release it.
As Lorenzo alluded to, Sec. 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act—a 27-year-old law written long before device manufacturers were reaching into your homes to mess with your property—means that distributing a method for breaking or bypassing a digital lock can lead to harsh penalties. That means that Lorenzo could face up to 5 years in federal prison and/or a $500,000 fine for releasing his solution.
That’s a pretty high penalty for trying to help people take back control over their stuff.
“I would like them to acknowledge the public backlash and revert the change. Realistically that probably will not happen unless laws around device ownership and repair change,” Lorenzo said.
As such, we’ve decided to take another approach this holiday season. Instead of sending a letter to Santa, we sent the below letter to Molekule’s CEO. The letter asks them to give us permission to release the bounty solution and restore app functionality for users of third-party filters.
Our stance on this is clear: we should not have to ask. We should not have to beg the manufacturer for permission every time we want to use an aftermarket part, or keep our thermostats smart, or ride our exercise bikes without an internet connection. As Air Mini+ owner Kailen Webb of Vidar, TX told us, “I’m not going to stand by and let companies bully me.”
Reforming Sec. 1201 is the only way for us to release a fix for Molekule’s air purifier app without either the permission of the manufacturer, or being at threat of criminal federal charges and prison time. Tell your members of Congress to take action today.
