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Wired has an article which responds to the view of John Deere and General Motors on what the people who buy their vehicles actually own, which was expressed during comments on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA):
John Deere—the world’s largest agricultural machinery maker —told the Copyright Office that farmers don’t own their tractors. Because computer code snakes through the DNA of modern tractors, farmers receive “an implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.”
It’s John Deere’s tractor, folks. You’re just driving it.
Several manufacturers recently submitted similar comments to the Copyright Office under an inquiry into the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
...
General Motors told the Copyright Office that proponents of copyright reform mistakenly “conflate ownership of a vehicle with ownership of the underlying computer software in a vehicle.” But I’d bet most Americans make the same conflation—and Joe Sixpack might be surprised to learn GM owns a giant chunk of the Chevy sitting in his driveway
(Score: 1) by mgcarley on Saturday April 25 2015, @10:42PM
So if it's John Deere's tractor after the farmer forks over $150k+, then I guess that means:
*It's still the farmer's money, which means he hasn't purchased a product, he's brought shares in the corporation and is entitled to dividends and/or is able to take out his money at any time on the condition that the product is returned OR the product is leased and as such the farmer is entitled to a new one every so many years
*There is an implied warranty for the life of the product (whether that's 3 or 30 years), so they have to maintain the hardware for the lifetime of the product
*There is an implied warranty for the software, so they have to provide firmware updates for the lifetime of the product
*If something goes wrong resulting in injury or death, the corporation is liable for 100%
...and I'm sure there are other things too, but the basic idea is either it's mine after I fork out a bunch of money OR it's yours, I'm licensed to use it, but as a consequence you're responsible for any and all eventualities.
Sadly, a "black & white" law like that is probably asking too much.
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