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Digital Rights/Restrictions Management (DRM) technologies affecting new tractors are behind the continuing rise in popularity of the models. Particularly in the midwest, farmers are finding that 40-year-old tractors do the job with less trouble and expense.
Tractors manufactured in the late 1970s and 1980s are some of the hottest items in farm auctions across the Midwest these days — and it's not because they're antiques.
Cost-conscious farmers are looking for bargains, and tractors from that era are well-built and totally functional, and aren't as complicated or expensive to repair as more recent models that run on sophisticated software.
"It's a trend that's been building. It's been interesting in the last couple years, which have been difficult for ag, to see the trend accelerate," said Greg Peterson, the founder of Machinery Pete, a farm equipment data company in Rochester with a website and TV show.
Previously;
Reeducating Legislators on the Right to Repair (2019)
John Deere Just Swindled Farmers Out of Their Right to Repair (2018)
US Copyright Office Says People Have the Right to Hack their Own Cars' Software (2015)
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday January 09 2020, @11:53PM
Because farmers don't have large budgets, and are very busy. This isn't true with the corporate farms, but they don't have as much trouble with tractors having DRM.
As for why nobody else is doing so... the people don't buy tractors regularly, so they depend on brands they recognize as quality. How do you develop a name? You do it by people using your tractors and finding them reliable. I can't think of any quick way to enter the field, and it's got a high bar to entry...you don't want to use a pickup frame for your tractor.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.