Tuesday, January 09, 2024
How John Deere Hijacked Copyright Law To Keep You From Repairing Your Tractor
reason.com: Discussions about the repairability of high-tech devices tend to focus on mass-market products: smartphones, laptops, video game consoles, and other commonplace devices. Less apparent is the repairability of tractors, cultivators, combines, and other heavy agricultural equipment that are equally reliant on computers and software. As with smartphone or laptop repairs, farmers and right-to-repair advocates have long complained that agricultural equipment manufacturers have used software to lock owners out of their products.
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Living in a relatively tight-knit community, many of my friends’ parents are farmers, or they hope to become farmers themselves. The one point of contention and complaint that every single one of them has is John Deere tractors. They all hate them with an irreverent passion I have genuinely never seen someone hate with before. John Deere prevents owners from repairing their own tractors by making things software locked, or copyrighted, so that owners do not have the freedom to repair their own vehicles. Some of my friends have told me that it has gotten so bad, a used tractor from the 1960s, when repair of them was easier, are sometimes going for HIGHER prices than the newer models. Repairing their tractors is genuinely such a burden on their wallets and time that they buy outdated ones in order to be able to service them. I firmly believe that if you own something, you should be able to modify it however you want.
This article reminds me of how hard it is to get anything done through the government. All the hoops that have to be jumped through and the red tape that has to be untangled and cut. The fact that John Deere is making it so hard and likely more expensive to repair their tractors makes me not want to buy one of their products, knowing that I could only get it repaired through one of their approved dealers. I understand that they are doing that to maximize there profits however I do feel that it is not in the best interest of the customer. The customer should be able to modify a product the way they see fit to best suit their needs. A car dealer does not expect the car to be kept the exact model they created. They allow the consumer to modify the car to their needs as they see fit so why is it different for tractors? I just do not see any good reason for such heavy restrictions.
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