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Tractor Hacking: The Farmers Breaking Big Tech's Repair Monopoly

posted by janrinok on Saturday February 03 2018, @05:40AM   Printer-friendly
from the you-don't-own-anything-anymore dept.

linkdude64 writes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8JCh0owT4w

When it comes to repair, farmers have always been self reliant. But the modernization of tractors and other farm equipment over the past few decades has left most farmers in the dust thanks to diagnostic software that large manufacturers hold a monopoly over.

Farmers using Eastern European cracking software for their tractors, and MS, Apple, etc. want to stop them.

Related: Right to Repair

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Sunday February 04 2018, @01:31PM

    by anubi (2828) on Sunday February 04 2018, @01:31PM (#632909) Journal

    I was looking into this... turns out the Guy Mills mentioned in the video in the story has been making waves. He owns a farm in Ansley, Nebraska and has been having fits with asinine equipment failures...

    Story on Guy Mills [kearneyhub.com]

    Asinine? Get a load of this!

    Mills told the Hub he once had a problem with a 24-row planter that was skipping spots in the field, even though the monitor revealed no problems. A technician who couldn’t find the problem went on the Internet and learned from posts by other farmers that the problem was a valve in the arm rest.

    Here's a few more snippets...

    Mills became aware of the problem after buying a new John Deere tractor about three years ago. That’s when James started reading information that came with it and said, “Hey Dad, do you realize you don’t own your own tractor?”

    They found information on the copyright restrictions in “Wired” magazine, and relayed them to officials of the Nebraska and National Corn Growers association.

    Mills, who serves on the state growers board, said a big part of the issue is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The update in U.S. copyright law that was passed by Congress in 1998 and took effect in October 2000 was done, in part to better protect intellectual property.

    Mills and other farmers told TIME writer Alex Fitzpatrick that equipment manufacturers make it difficult for consumers and independent repair shops to get the tools needed to fix today’s high-tech tractors and other heavy machinery that runs on copyright-protected software. That means they often are directed to company-approved technicians miles away from the farm, which can be costly in time and money.

    This to me is a glaring example of how out of touch our Congress has become, screwing a lot of us so as to implement the wish list of a few, and why we as a public should be seriously considering limiting their authority to represent us... as they are NOT representing US!

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
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