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Grandson of Legendary John Deere Inventor Calls Out Company On Right To Repair (securityledger.com)
chicksdaddy writes: The grandson of Theo Brown, a legendary engineer and inventor for John Deere who patented, among other things, the manure spreader is calling out the company his grandfather served for decades for its opposition to right to repair legislation being considered in Illinois. In an opinion piece published by The Security Ledger entitled "My Grandfather's John Deere would support Our Right to Repair," Willie Cade notes that his grandfather, Theophilus Brown is credited with 158 patents, some 70% of them for Deere & Co., including the manure spreader in 1915. His grandfather used to travel the country to meet with Deere customers and see his creations at work in the field. His hope, Cade said, was to help the company's customers be more efficient and improve their lives with his inventions.
In contrast, Cade said the John Deere of the 21st Century engages in a very different kind of business model: imposing needless costs on their customers. An example of this kind of rent seeking is using software locks and other barriers to repair -- such as refusing to sell replacement parts -- in order to force customers to use authorized John Deere technicians to do repairs at considerably higher cost and hassle. "It undermines what my grandfather was all about," he writes. Cade, who founded the Electronics Reuse Conference, is supporting right to repair legislation that is being considered in Illinois and opposed by John Deere and the industry groups it backs. "Farmers who can't repair farm equipment and a wide spectrum of Americans who can't repair their smartphones are pushing back in states across the country."
In contrast, Cade said the John Deere of the 21st Century engages in a very different kind of business model: imposing needless costs on their customers. An example of this kind of rent seeking is using software locks and other barriers to repair -- such as refusing to sell replacement parts -- in order to force customers to use authorized John Deere technicians to do repairs at considerably higher cost and hassle. "It undermines what my grandfather was all about," he writes. Cade, who founded the Electronics Reuse Conference, is supporting right to repair legislation that is being considered in Illinois and opposed by John Deere and the industry groups it backs. "Farmers who can't repair farm equipment and a wide spectrum of Americans who can't repair their smartphones are pushing back in states across the country."
I disagree with your statement in whole. Apple does not sell parts, and is difficult to service. Samsung http://www.samsungparts.com/Mo... I can buy any part I want, and for a long time lead the way in water proof phones. it is a design choice to say, I need to make this serviceable and weather proof. The part can even be considered disposable, as long as I can replace it myself. Versus, I refuse to support people repairing their phones and putting mechanisms in place to make it almost impossible.
The important bit is that right to repair should apply to all machinery and transport like this. It's inexcusable that this isn't an abuse of copyright that IMO should terminate the copyright. It's exploiting copyright to provide an additional legal protection to the seller that they wouldn't otherwise have which is a textbook example of abusing the law.
There are legitimate rights that need to be respected, but any customer should be able to modify or break software on any product they buy, as long as they aren't doing so to abuse a warranty or to abuse the copyright (using the software on another unaffiliated product or something similar) beyond repairing, servicing or upgrading a product you own.
The problem here is that Deere and the other companies (like apple) that are opposed to this make massive political donations to make sure these laws die. We need more congress critters that are willing to stand up to these entrenched interests when they are abusing the law to get protections they were never supposed to get.