Proprietary software and licensing agreements, at least right now, mean that a tractor, or a book, and many other things that you thought you bought outright and own, remain under control of the corporation.

^^^^^^^^^^ is a great video. It really is worth watching.

There are a few pieces of law that are trying to help . We will see how it progresses.

The tricky part is this is not just about voiding a warranty but other issues as well. If you write the law too broadly, a RtR law could allow access to say, source code of software. "I have a right to patch my own device with my own software patch" type of deal. Imagine Microsoft having to open up Windows etc. to allow 'right to repair' and since most cannot actually alter it we will download a promising bit of code to add a wonderful new functionality We have already faced issues with the Chinese slipping us additional code and systems in the tech we buy from them, I am looking at you huawei.

I am not for John Deere here, and I have voiced my complaints over their $550 carburetor that came from the same Chinese factory that same carb on ebay sells for. And I definitely think there is a mechanism for creating a competitive repair process but maintain the integrity of the systems being repaired.

John Deere treats the consumer like they are idiots, and exploits the monopoly they have. But some of these farmers have shown they can download an image and load a custom OS onto the system and fix it themselves. And I can appreciate how this wild west underground system can be . . . unstable.

IF I were a politician and IF I were to try to craft a law, I would like to force John Deere to come up with a licensing system for updates and repair that allows for fair competition and thus lowering the price to more reasonable levels.

"You will own nothing, and be happy."

Disgusting isn’t it?

JD's policies and practices in this regard are nothing short of blackmail and extortion. It absolutely is disgusting that they are abusing the DMCA and other DRM laws that are intended to protect content creators for their greedy lock-ins. Yes, they do regard their customers as idiots, but who's the idiot for buying a JD product in the first place?

For me, it's not so much that they demand high prices for their parts and upgrades, but that they steal the ability to choose from the owner of the product.

Of course, it is currently only their high-priced farm equipment that is included in these unfair trade practices. Do they dare extend this "protection" to their consumer products, and subject themselves to the inevitable shit storm? What do you mean I can't change or clean the air filter in my mower unless I am an authorized dealer? And I am required to buy JD-brand gas and oil or it stops running? Fuck you, JD!

Back in 1997, when I was working at a Toyota dealer, if you needed an ECU (engine control unit) you ordered it by VIN and it came flashed plug and play, nothing else needed.
1998 comes around and now they are blank, dealer flashes them. Either way, you still had to buy it from Toyota.
At that time, you could get pretty much everything else for that car at NAPA or wherever.
Zip up to now and ABS, cruise control, window switches, body control modules, etc. all need to be flashed in the majority of situations, they come blank. You might be able to get blank ones at part stores, the tools to flash it are expensive though.
You either suck the old data out of the broken component and load the new one, Or enter the code manually in the new one.
The demand for programming has increased because of technology, the new laws in place will have to be specific. As far as other mechanical stuff, might need a special tool once in a while, owners can still repair their own cars.
I'm not in favor of what Deere is doing, just that there is a lot going on now from a technology perspective that is not keeping up for those that want to fix it on their own.
With the next generation of car owners... I doubt they want to fix it anyway.
The data sharing will be all good when they sort it out with the new laws, just going to take some time.