• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, April 4, 2011

One would think that reports from car manufacturers about problems and how to make repairs, as well as intelligence about extended warranties, are the type of thing that consumers should be able to see. After all, most people probably would rather not drive around in a car that needs to be fixed -- especially if the problem can be fixed relatively cheaply or is covered by a warranty.

One would also hope that the government wants consumers to know about flaws with cars, given the obvious public safety issues posed when people take to the roads in vehicles in need of repair.

Yet, even though car manufacturers routinely send dealers technical service bulletins that contain this information, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration doesn't post the bulletins in their entirety. Instead, the agency only posts summaries of some bulletins for free.

The government's explanation for why the entire bulletins aren't just posted online, according to The New York Times, is that some car makers claim that the bulletins are copyrighted.

But facts can't be copyrighted. Even if the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration genuinely fears that posting the bulletins in their entirety will draw a lawsuit, copyright law doesn't prevent the government or anyone else from posting summaries of the complete bulletins.

Besides, even if the government decided to defy the industry by posting the entire bulletins verbatim, legal experts say that the odds of a successful lawsuit seem remote at best, given the government's obvious fair-use defense.

"The fair-use argument is quite powerful," New York Law School professor James Grimmelmann tells MediaPost. "There is not a meaningful market here to be protected. The purpose of the use is to inform the public about safety issues, and the works are minimally expressive."

"It seems kind of silly for the automobile manufacturers to use copyright to restrict that information -- especially if it puts consumer safety at greater risk," adds Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University.

What's more, an explanation offered by one auto manufacturer, Ford, for why it doesn't want its bulletin published casts doubt on the copyright claims. Ford told the Times that the bulletins showed how repairs could be made, and the company doesn't want "do-it-yourselfers" attempting to fix their cars. But that explanation has nothing to do with copyright law's goals of fostering creativity and protecting artistic expression. Besides, as the Times points out, the reasoning also seems inconsistent with the fact that the company allows people to purchase the bulletins.

Instead, it looks very much like some car manufacturers are asserting bogus intellectual property claims in order to suppress information online. The federal government shouldn't help them to do so.