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Nebraska is one of eight states in the US – including Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Wyoming, Tennessee and Kansas – seeking to pass "right to repair" legislation. All eyes will be on the Cornhusker state when the bill has its public hearing on 9 March, because its unique "unicameral legislature" (it's the only state to have a single parliamentary chamber) means laws can be enacted swiftly. If this bill, officially named LB67, gets through, it may lead to a domino effect through the rest of the US, as happened with a similar battle over the right to repair cars. These Nebraska farmers are fighting for all of us.
Big agriculture and big tech – including John Deere, Apple and AT&T – are lobbying hard against the bill, and have sent representatives to the Capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska, to spend hours talking to senators, citing safety, security and intellectual property concerns.
John Deere has gone as far as to claim that farmers don't own the tractors they pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for, but instead receive a "license to operate the vehicle". They lock users into license agreements that forbid them from even looking at the software running the tractor or the signals it generates.
Another article on the topic at Techdirt.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday March 08 2017, @07:29PM (1 child)
It's the US. You're supposed to go into debt to buy The New Shiny.
Repairing the Old Dull (formerly know as last year's New Shiny) is a waste of your time, and robs you of a Golden Opportunity to contract more debt and Buy The New Shiny!
How else do you get perpetual market growth with no immigration, plummeting birth rates, and flat wages?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @08:57PM
Even the yearly update scenario will plateau growth pretty quickly. OH NO! PROFITS ARE STAYING STEADY AND NOT RISING EVERY 3 MONTHS!?!?