SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 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.