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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: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 10 2020, @02:21PM (2 children)
Same with Pyrex state-side, Pyrex containers are now just regular glass, so all that "pyrex doesn't shatter with temperature changes" is just plain false, and has been for over 30 years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 11 2020, @02:44AM
Secondhand PYREX (nb. never pyrex or Pyrex) ftw. If, of course, there's a secondhand market close to you - not the case for many rural folks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @03:03AM
PYREX in all caps is used to denote borosilicate glass [wikipedia.org] and pyrex in all lowercase is tempered glass [wikipedia.org]. If you have mixed case, then you have to check the date of manufacture, markings, or tint to know for sure.