>If I buy a car that is rated as xxHP, disassemble it, reverse >engineer it, boost it beyond its original specifications but >*never* drive it on a public road (and eventually don't try to >use my warranty because it's broken[1]), I'm not 100% sure how >the law would apply.
Assuming the United States, how about the Clean Air Act, as just one example. My understanding is that the Clean Air Act makes it illegal for anyone to tamper with vehicle emission controls. As another example, many localities levy property taxes on vehicles, and in some jurisdictions that tax may be owed regardless of the vehicle's status. (It's a property tax, a type of wealth tax.) As yet another example, many localities have noise regulations. If you take the muffler off and fire up the engine, you could be instantly violating such regulations. You could be criminally liable for certain uses of the car, such as putting a baby or toddler in the car without a certified child safety seat, regardless of where you operate or don't operate the car. (You could even lose custody of the children.) You cannot leave pets in the car, especially with the windows closed -- that violates anti-cruelty laws. By law you cannot store certain things in cars (on or off road) in certain jurisdictions. Examples might include alcohol (especially if an open container), fireworks, firearms, explosives, hazardous materials, etc. You may have problems with garbage disposal laws if the car is considered trash after you're done with it, and if you have not properly disposed of it -- or the parts and fluids that come off it. You have potential civil and criminal liabilities if the car rolls into a schoolbus and forces it to tumble into a canyon.... ....And so on, and so on. Speaking only for myself (and only about cars). - - - - - Timothy Sipples IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan / Asia-Pacific E-Mail: [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
