John Deere has turned itself into the poster-child for the DMCA, fighting farmers who say they want to fix their own tractors and access their data by saying that doing so violates the 1998 law’s prohibition on bypassing copyright locks.
Deere’s just reiterated that position to a US Copyright Office inquiry on the future of the law, joined by auto manufacturers (but not Tesla) and many other giant corporations, all of them arguing that since the gadgets you buy have software, and since that software is licensed, not sold, you don’t really own any of that stuff. You are a licensee, and you have to use the gadget according to the license terms, which spell out where you have to buy your service, parts, consumables, apps, and so on.
This is finally a moment where without a doubt I can be all smug and entirely unhelpful by saying I do not use any stuff made by John Deere.
… you pay for food produced my those that do, and you’re paying a extra for it because they can’t fix their equipment in whatever way is cheapest.
Actually, I doubt the farming equipment is what makes food more expensive. Food in the west is, if anything, too cheap because people waste too much food. And it is the supermarkets that skew the prices so low because they have the market power to force farmers. Yet they still make a solid profit from being the middle man.
Waste is a big concern too, yes, but there are a lot of things that can increase food costs in addition to waste and expensive equipment:
* Farmland degradation caused by tillage
* Markup at many points in the supply chain
* Annual expenses (fertiliser, pesticide, IP-encumbered seeds)
* Increased pest pressure due to pesticide resistance
* Labour
Quite hypocrite from Tesla which puts lots of software in their cars, with locked-down accesses, remote updates and extensive telemetry (hello Windows 10 !)
Why is it hypocritical of Tesla to not join the chorus?
Well, I regret my post.
The article is biased, listing the companies actually involved would have been more honest than outlining Tesla.
So, you’re saying there’s a business opportunity to sell non-DRM’d tractors in the US?
Considering that US farmers are already buying hacked JD firmware from east European hackers, they’d go for a Free-as-in-freedom-tractors.
Natural persons can not own property, that is correct. Only incorporated persons can hold property or office according to US and EU law. Look at Williams vs California or Abdul vs Sweden but also in places like Australia and New Zeeland. You need to be incorporated and prove your place of birth to be able to buy property.
Also, the plural for person is corporation.
Example: https://realnewsaustralia.com/2015/03/03/your-birth-certificate-is-y…
Case number for Abdul vs Sweden ?
So wrong.
By default, US law gives property to anyone that creates anything, see Copyright law – everything anyone creates is automatically copyrighted to that person by Federal law. All home owners actually own their homes; all vehicle owners actually own their vehicles; Doctrine of First Sale applies.
Vehicle owners – and probably even John Deere – will probably have issues since there is no EULA provided with a vehicle. There is only the bill of sale and the vehicle is legally recognized as being owned by the individual. There’s numerous reasons why they will not want to actually get involved in changing that – all kinds of liabilities that they would have to legally take on if they wanted to claim ownership.
Williams v. California was about that particular state not providing equal educational opportunity to all students, because many schools had substandard, unsafe facilities and outdated textbooks. Nothing to do with property ownership, the notion of personhood, or insane conspiracy theories.
source: https://idea.gseis.ucla.edu/projects/past-projects/williams-v.-calif…
This whole situation is beyond infuriating and thinking too much about it is leading me to hope that people and lawyers working for the company get mangled by their own equipment. People in groups larger than two are capable of such ignorant things…
The manual for John Deere’s lawn mowing equipment is extensive and tells you how to perform all the needed maintenance.
… and start buying LAMBORGHINI