Farmers get Cornholed by DRM Software

DRM is a facette of greed.

I would just NOT buy any JD stuff again and tell this to the owner of the regional JD store. Drive up there and make yourself heard, with dozens of others. Then drive off to Chase or Steiger or XYZ brand and have a chat & beer there. It will not be unnoticed.

Be aware of the power that you have, you dont need a union, just some common understanding how power forms and you will achieve great things and move mountains.

Yeah, they tried it over here too, in the Holy Land of Cars ( germany ), they sucked big time. I can bring my car to ANY shop and have it fixed and no warranty is voided.
Glad we got that fixed in EU.

China's rise is partly driven by not paying attention to any copyright, DRM, xyz. They just dont care and DO IT...and they do pretty well.
 
Ya know... I though the
Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act would have been able to be applied to this... In this case it's got nothing to do with software other than what the Manufacturer artificially (as in it's not needed except to protect profit margin) extended to make an otherwise unrelated repair cause a major malfunction.

MaZa said:
Emission restrictions? On tractors that gets driven around few times a year? No matter how black smoke it puts out its nothing but a drop in a bucket in grand scheme of things. I'm not a farmer but I always saw tractors nothing more than a tools like a wrench or a hoe, never figured that massive emission laws apply to them too.
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You do know we aren't talking about lawn tractors... right? We are talking about about 3-400HP Row crop tractors and combines...
(I can't remember if linking to an outside source is allowed... but this is relevant. please delete if it's not allowed)

https://www.deere.com/en_US/products/equipment/tractors/row_crop_tractors/row_crop_tractors.page?

These are not small machines and are ran for a LOT longer than "a few times a year"
 
You pay $150K+ for a tractor and say you can't repair it on your own. In my eyes if they want to do this then they should be held to having their service repairs as a free service for all of their products. I know that would never happen but balance it out, they already making money hand over fist anyway....
 
The monetization of every aspect of our lives has surely spiraled out of control. Anybody remember when a company built a solid product and you bought it, because it was a solid product? And then you told all your friends, "You should buy this, it's a solid product."

Yeah, me either. But my grandparents tell me that's how it used to be.
 
Master_shake_ said:
when you are getting fucked this bad you need one.
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Your comment makes zero sense. Unions protect workers. You are basically saying that everyone should start a union to avoid getting fucked over by McDonalds due to their big macs they buy not looking the same as the pictures they show in adds. That logic falls apart there as a union wouldn't and can't help in those types of areas.

Verge said:
Yo in the south the word "cornholed" has a much different meaning.
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Unless I am missing something it only has two meanings
1. bean bag game where you try toss the bag onto a slanted board and get it into a hole
2. getting fucked in the ass

Most people think #2. Which definition are you saying it wide wide spread in the south?
 
I live around a lot of agricultural areas and I have not seen many John Deere in many years other than the lawn tractors at Home Depot. Mostly I see Kubota and New Holland. My city used to use John Deere 10 yrs ago but all their tractor rolling stock is New Holland now. Maybe John Deere is more relevant in the mid west, but they seemed to have disappeared in FL and TN.
 
John Deere makes lawn tractors, lawnmowers and snow blowers too. Guess who will not be buying any of those after this story as well. It seems John Deere wants to be the Apple of farm equipment and seems to run their business in the same manner.

As for alternatives:

Ariens
Case
International Harvester
Massey Ferguson

Are just a few of the bigger ones in North America. There are Many MANY others. Just as there are alternatives to Apple products, John Deere does not sit alone in it's chosen industry.
 
Not standing on John Deere's side at all......but.......

My wife and I own a small farm.
We have two New Holland tractors.
Aside from basic maintainence, I wouldn't know where to start on a repair. The tractors, especially the giant agricultural ones are extremely complex pieces now.
I think letting the proper tech repair your tractor is the right thing to do.
I have a great dealer and their service is outstanding. All service and repair is done on site unless I were to blow up the motor or ruin an axle or transmission.

Given that my tractors have 7 year warranties, I'm not going to do any work that would void that.
 
NeghVar said:
They make it sound like they do. They make it sound like John Deere products are their only option. What are the other brands?
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Well there's
Case IH (Which is what is left of international harvester) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_IH
Kubota http://www.kubota.com/
Kiota http://www.kioti.com/
New Holland (dur) http://www.newholland.com
Oxbo for pull harvesters/combines

These are what I can remember off the top of my head.

Either way John Deere is intentionally no inline with the intention of the ruling. If I was a judge I would give them HELL.

And this is the point where I become conflicted. They could sell the software to unlock and diagnose the problem. BUT they could also sell that at $50,000/per device, which would still leave farmers in the same predicament. And I have deep internal conflicts about government mandating pricing.
 
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So now DRM is bad, had to happen to a tractor for people to care lol. Maybe something like this will help trigger push-back for better consumer rights.
 
At minimum owners should at least have read access to error codes (and reasonable access to what they mean) etc AND the ability to do some sort of reset to rescan parts if they were to replace one (lets ignore any issues with "official" parts).

If a proprietary device is required to read said codes... the vendor should be required to provide/allow a tool/software to do so.
 
Olle P said:
There's a huge difference in technology between a modern tractor and one that's 50 years old:
* Emissions has already been addressed.
* There's also navigation, to know exactly what parts of a field has been worked and to get perfectly straight plough lines.
* Communication, with the data network and navigation system.
* Other power/torque/speed control systems.
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Your not even close more like in last 10 years Olle P with computer controlled injection so the new tractors are electronics complexity nightmare systems even hydraulic electronics systems are complex too boot.
If the main brain go out you have giant boat anchor that can't moved due to lack of no limp mode or even worse they no longer making replacement parts for them so your SOL.
In my day 70% problems could easy be solved with bubble gum, duct tape and baling wire in the field now day you need Phone or Tablet or Laptop and proprietary device, it would be #$% nice if the butt wipe manufacturer would put in a build in diagnostics mode there no reason why they can't but oh no they want @#^& people over even more with high price dealer shop mechanic or service tech with hourly chargers ranger from any where from $80 to $120 hour and there 2 hour min +parts and any other feeds on top of that.
I should point out that the demand for newer tractors has falling and demand for older tractors come in at a premium now day at lease that what one of my family relative told me.
In case some of you don't know there all ready have a union for farmers look NFU (National Farmers Union) better know as Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union of America.

Keep in mind that this not just about John Deere right to repair it's all the other tractor manufacturer as well that have Common-Rail Injectors Diesel engines that has an ECU on them that don't give you any kind diagnostics tool need in order for you to repair it you self
 
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shspvr said:
it would be #$% nice if the butt wipe manufacturer would put in a build in diagnostics mode there no reason why they can't but oh no they want @#^& people over even more with high price dealer shop mechanic or service tech with hourly chargers ranger from any where from $80 to $120 hour and there 2 hour min +parts and any other feeds on top of that.
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I agree. And that's ridiculous for something like a broken belt which is easy to replace yourself. Maybe the solution here is to mandate that a one time flat fee diagnostics tool be included in the price of the tractor purchase.
 
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