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Farmer Lobbying Group Sells Out Farmers, Helps Enshrine John Deere's Tractor Repair Monopoly (vice.com)

Posted by msmash on from the betrayal dept.

Jason Koebler writes: The California Farm Bureau, a group that lobbies on behalf of farmers, reached a "right to repair" agreement with the Equipment Dealers Association (which represents John Deere and other manufacturers) last week. But the specifics of the agreement were written by the manufacturers, and falls far short of providing the types of change that would be needed to make repairing tractors easier. In fact, the agreement makes the same concessions that the Equipment Dealers Association announced in February it would voluntarily give to all farmers. The agreement will not allow farmers to buy repair parts, break firmware DRM, or otherwise alter software for the purposes of repair.

4 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Question for John Deere by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If farmers do not actually own the vehicle they pay for, but instead only receive a âoelicense to operate the vehicleâ as John Deere claims, shouldn't repairs all be at the cost of John Deer, and any losses due to mechanical or software failure mean John Deere is liable for damages...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Question for John Deere by Calydor · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Imagine if all of these 'welfare queens' stopped running their farms tomorrow. How long do you think it would take for you to go hungry?

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  2. Why is anyone surprised? by alexo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Any group that "lobbies on behalf of $group" will whore their services to the highest bidder.
    It just happens that the Equipment Dealers Association offered them a sweeter deal than the farmers that they ostensibly represent.
    Not that they will return the farmers' money or anything like that.

  3. Re:Headline from "Pravda" by BlueStrat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If they wanted to be left alone, maybe they should tone down the criticism of how everyone else are living their lives...

    Er, wut!?

    Seriously.

    If someone is trying to control how you live your life, then they are the nearly polar-opposite of a small-'L' libertarian. Believing that everybody should stay out of other people's business and leave everyone else the hell alone to think, believe, marry, smoke this or that, or say stupid and hateful shit or sing beautiful music, etc etc is the short version of being libertarian. Not some stupid shit about lawlessness/Somalia and no government.

    Just a government that isn't in your grill all the time micro-managing, regulating, invading your privacy and violating civil rights, and taxing the shit out of everything and everyone, all resulting in the US having the world's largest percentage of a nation's citizens incarcerated in prisons.

    Yeah, libertarians are a real scary bunch, alright.

    Watch out, some sneaky libertarian could be covertly leaving you the hell alone right NOW!!!1!!

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.