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from the take-a-little-ride-on-the-old-John-Deere dept.
An article about how the Russian military stole farm equipment from a John Deere dealership in the Ukraine, only to find it all remotely disabled when trying to use/sell it on the other side:
Russian troops in the occupied city of Melitopol have stolen all the equipment from a farm equipment dealership -- and shipped it to Chechnya, according to a Ukrainian businessman in the area.
But after a journey of more than 700 miles, the thieves were unable to use any of the equipment -- because it had been locked remotely.
Over the past few weeks there's been a growing number of reports of Russian troops stealing farm equipment, grain and even building materials - beyond widespread looting of residences. But the removal of valuable agricultural equipment from a John Deere dealership in Melitopol speaks to an increasingly organized operation, one that even uses Russian military transport as part of the heist.
[...] Other sources in the Melitopol region say theft by Russian military units has extended to grain held in silos, in a region that produces hundreds of thousands of tonnes of crops a year.
Are there other examples like this justifying some sort of limited DRM? How prominent do you think this will be held up as an example in lobbying efforts to justify not passing "Right To Repair" laws?
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday May 03 2022, @12:05PM (10 children)
So is the tractor "bricked" now forever or can it somehow be unlocked or hacked open? I know the John Deere DRM appears to be a gigantic pain for normal farmers. So I'm not entirely sure here that their horrific DRM is for the win or justified just cause they managed to stop some russian looting expedition. I guess they'll learn and not steal any John Deeres then and instead just loot anything else that isn't nailed down (or is, it just takes a bit more effort).
Still seems like this war-looting is a classic thing, just look at all the pictures from WWII how people had arms filled with watches etc. Weird that pillaging hasn't gone away, as a motivator, in modern warfare.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @12:33PM (6 children)
Using military transport to take heavy machinery or literally tons of grain to sell is quite a step up from soldiers grabbing jewels or art off the walls of a museum.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday May 03 2022, @12:35PM (5 children)
Yes and No. It's obviously a difference in scale. But it's not new as a phenomenon. That said if someone steals a John Deere today it's not really comparable to looting some museum of ancient things. One can be replaced, and is replaced daily. The other isn't.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 03 2022, @12:49PM (4 children)
This goes back way past WWII. Caesar stayed in power (for a while) based on redistribution of his spoils of conquest. I'd bet the tradition extends back long before human history into any organized groups which "make war" on others.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by looorg on Tuesday May 03 2022, @06:57PM (3 children)
No doubt. Then the spoils of war was part of the pay and reward scheme. One just assumed, wrongly, that that went away sort of when we decided to pay them normal salaries etc. No need for the other "war perks" or whatever. Since it's generally frowned upon these days by western society.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 03 2022, @09:30PM (2 children)
I mean, the whole concept of "offensive war" is offensive to Western sensibilities these days. We're training our youth to teabag their conquests instead.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday May 03 2022, @09:58PM (1 child)
Partially true anyway. There doesn't seem to be to many issues with bombing for freedom (or oil or peace or profit or something). At least not initially. It seems it's the the offensive war that fills body-bags that seems offensive, as long as the body-bags are not for enemy corpses in a farfarawayistan then it's tolerable at least for some time.
Question is if there is a just war anymore and what it would be? Special Operations in Ukraine doesn't seem to be it anyway. Also clearly the various peacekeeping things and bombing for terrorism/freedom was not long on the list. They had their backing for a time but then things turned against them to and it became a 20 year unwinnable slog.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 04 2022, @02:01PM
"In the Queen's Navy an officer must always choose the lesser of two weevils..."
I think the bombings are perceived as addressing a "greater wrong" and of course, the value of "their lives" is always weighed less than the value of "our lives," so aerial bombings get a major advantage in that calculus - not to mention the jobs that bombs and planes and aircraft carriers generate back home.
Hopefully, global instant free video communication will eventually make all lives "our lives."
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday May 03 2022, @12:46PM (2 children)
A tractor is never "bricked forever" - the ECU is a minor expense as compared to the chassis and powertrain. Now, it might take an annoying amount of reverse engineering to retrofit a new brain into the thing, but it is possible.
Bad car analogy: it is common practice to pluck an engine out of one car, install it in another, and retrofit an aftermarket ECU to avoid the hassle of "fooling" the OEM ECU into working in a new body, possibly with very different intake/exhaust plumbing - possibly including the addition of a turbocharger... There won't be as big of an (existing) market in tractor-combine aftermarket ECU systems - but if this type of manufacturer bricking goes on much more, justified or not, the people holding the chassis and powertrains will have sufficient motivation to make one, and if those things go open source it's going to put a hurt on the likes of John Deere - they might have to actually start offering valuable warranty service to keep people from ripping out the factory ECUs on the day after purchase, the way I put OpenWRT in my router.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 03 2022, @02:28PM (1 child)
You mean it is possible "in theory."
In practice, what is the availability of such a bootleg ECU (legal, widespread?) and what is the cost?
(Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Tuesday May 03 2022, @04:25PM
Cracked firmware images for JD have circulated for years.