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'Right to repair' taken up by the ACCC in farmers' fight to fix their own tractors:
The 'right to repair' movement has finally bent the ear of Australia's competition and consumer watchdog, the ACCC, in its pleas to be able to fix their own farm equipment.
[...] Farmers have emerged as an unlikely force in the global right to repair movement.
The movement eschews the disposable culture of consumer electronics in favour of letting independent repairers and home tinkerers fix broken smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
Proponents want access to the code that makes modern machines hum, putting them at loggerheads with tech giants including Apple who own the proprietary software.
In the United States, farmers have risked voiding their warranties by hacking their own John Deere tractors with torrented software so they can carry out their own repairs.
[...] In its first deep dive into the modern agricultural machinery market, the ACCC published its discussion paper on the matter in late February and is seeking accounts from those who buy and use farm machinery, or repair it for a living.
"Broadacre croppers with large tractors, harvesters, seeders … and particularly tractors seem to be an area of some contention," Mr Keogh said.
"We have heard from dealers who say that they have no issues with providing service, yet we hear from independent service providers that they can't get access to the [software] diagnostic tools they need.
"In some cases they can't get access to the [manufacturers'] parts they need.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2020, @06:42PM (1 child)
hmmm ... i see what you're saying. however, even with a future-tech book transported into the past, there still remains the factor of human lettargy or aka "fun". not to mention mundane stuff like shelter and food in tummy and the forever more "time waste" of child rearing.
consider that whilst a team is "wasting time" implementing the text book they're doing so on borrowed time from the group, since they're not contributing to any of the mundane stuff above.
i think, with hind sight of course :) the developments mentioned (spear to solid state) weren't so difficult considering the time span.
so i think what would be alot more usefull for a group to go from stone age to future are probably text books on weapons, military tactics and "population management".
obviously as the leader of the group, implementing development requires to keep the "sheap" (and wolfes) in line and abit of wool over ear pulling is required. not all "time wasting" is always instantly obvious for everyone.
p.s. maybe a "shortcut" exists if we can get/keep solid state devices and microwave making devices past the apocalypse?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2020, @06:59PM
p.p.s i forgot on topic comment:
in a perfect world, of course all parts can be serviced by owner but in reality, parts from a country not mentioned here are cheap and could potentially be engineered to fail at set intervals. afterall this country is known to thrieve on high churn and waste isn't a issue. methinks their philosophy is that durability and sturdyness are for gready and lazy people?
agriculture, not yet dominated by mentioned country, maybe doesn't want to be dependant on a imported "parts replacement tax"? that's about all things positif i can wring from this poor mind on why DRM in americam made farm machinary might be a good thing?