These tractor-hacking farmers are fighting for the right to repair their own equipment.

Tractor hacking is a fast-growing trend in the farming community — but it’s not outsiders breaking in. Farmers themselves are hacking their own equipment for reasons that go far beyond agriculture. They’re part of a larger movement against big-name companies that are withholding the right to make equipment repairs.

While farming is an ancient practice, farmers are hardly immune to technological advancements. In fact, farmers are among the most susceptible groups when it comes to software propriety, as much of the equipment used on farms requires consistent maintenance.

Companies like John Deere have made it impossible for farmers to perform “unauthorized” repairs on their equipment, forcing tractor owners into using the parent company for repairs, which can be more costly.

Farmers view this corporate strategy as an infringement on their sovereignty to make strategic decisions about their hard assets. In some cases, this system can function as a threat to their livelihood, should they encounter an ill-timed tractor breakdown.

That’s why many farmers have turned to tractor hacking, in an attempt to return the right to repair back to the consumer rather than large corporations.

They’re part of a larger movement against big-name companies that are withholding the right to make equipment repairs.

Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors Because of a Repair Ban
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EPYy_g8NzmI

Julkaistu 3.3.2020

As of 2020, no right to repair law has passed in the US. But more than 20 states are considering legislation similar to Nebraska’s, and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have both supported national right to repair legislation for farmers.

When it comes to repair, farmers have always been self reliant. But the modernization of tractors and other farm equipment over the past few decades has left most farmers in the dust thanks to diagnostic software that large manufacturers hold a monopoly over.

In this episode of State of Repair, we go to Nebraska to talk to the farmers and mechanics who are fighting large manufacturers like John Deere for the right to access the diagnostic software they need to repair their tractors.

What the Right To Repair Movement Gets Wrong
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/consumer-electronics/gadgets/wrong-right-to-repair

Today repair remains an option, one that makers want to monopolize or eliminate. Apple, the world’s most valuable company, is the worst offender, effectively forbidding owners to repair or maintain their smart phones. Not even the battery is replaceable by an owner. Forbidden also are repairs by owners of cracked screens. Such brazen actions void Apple’s warranty.

Seated at my table, working with tiny tools, he swapped my broken screen for a new one. I slipped him $90 in cash, and he left.

Sound tawdry? The nationwide campaign, led by Repair.Org, agrees, which is why Repair.Org supports legislation in at least 20 states to promote “your right to repair,” by requiring manufacturers “to share the information necessary for repair.”

Long before the advent of the repair campaign, and a related movement called the Maintainers, there were loud critics of “planned obsolescence.” During Depression-era America, an influential book published 1932 advocated “creative waste”—the idea that throwing things away and buying new things can fuel a strong economy.

Manufacturers purposely made stuff that broke or wore out, so consumers would have to buy the stuff again. Echoes of this practice persist. In shopping for new tires, for instance, drivers pay more for those “rated” to last longer.

The big threat to devices today isn’t failure, but rather “creative destruction,” or the new advent of new and improved stuff. Who needs to think about repairs when we are dazzled by the latest “upgrade.”

John Deere makes it difficult to repair its new tractors without specialized software, so an increasing number of farmers are buying older models.

https://www.aftermarketsuppliers.org/news/dmca-exemptions-allow-access-independent-repair-providers