As someone who has built homemade firearms, I'm amused by your example.
It seems like municipalities with emissions testing requirements could easily catch these "socially offensive hackers" if they use the older hook-it-up-to-the-tailpipe testing technology. Then we wouldn't have to get permission from our betters to alter our own property.
To be fair I don't understand either why the onboard computer was involved instead of just monitoring the tailpipe. But one could imagine a range of means to guess one is being tested ...
As for the firearm, let's imagine decommissioned firearms are all painted pink, because that tells other people the gun is completely safe. If you replace the pin in a pink gun (or paint your real gun pink) you are sending out fake and potentially lethal social signals. Regulation is not part of it. Convention is.
We have enforced minimum standards and behaviour on drivers and cars, because the social signals tell us something useful. And still morons drive too fast in souped up cars.
Edit: the analogy is not meant to imply you are the moron. It's a bit early in the morning
It seems like municipalities with emissions testing requirements could easily catch these "socially offensive hackers" if they use the older hook-it-up-to-the-tailpipe testing technology. Then we wouldn't have to get permission from our betters to alter our own property.