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The feds are coming for John Deere over the right to repair

(gizmodo.com)
568 points rntn | 9 comments | 18 Oct 24 16:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.797s | source | bottom
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freedomben ◴[18 Oct 24 19:10 UTC] No.41882500[source]▶
It's ironic that farmers (traditionally thought of as less technical people, "workers of the earth", etc) and hackers (highly technical nerds writing operating systems and engineering compatibility parts) are so connected by this issue. Some of the farmers I've talked to understand the importance ownership and right to repair better than even many engineers.

That said, I think John Deere is just the asshole willing to weaponize the legal system to enforce their dreams. The real problem is laws that protect IP like the DMCA and the patent system. I'm not saying we should just delete all those, but they are in bad need of reform and enable a tremendous amount of abuse. The abuse is only going to get worse unless we treat the cause(s) rather than just the symptoms.

I'm glad the feds are giving John Deere some attention, but I really hope they are going to fix the lopsided system instead of just try to bully or micro-regulate John Deere into "voluntarily" allowing more repair. If we stopped unleashing the lawyers on people for modifying or interfacing with devices they purchased, it would shift the balance of power more toward the center (whereas currently the power is almost entirely on the side of the companies).

Even if you have no interest in repairing or "tinkering" with your own stuff, you should be on the side of right to repair.

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1. FredPret ◴[18 Oct 24 19:27 UTC] No.41882635[source]▶
Where did you get this stereotype of farmers?

I’ve always though of them as business owners with special skills in growing things, auto mechanics, and logistics.

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2. mcmcmc ◴[18 Oct 24 19:54 UTC] No.41882887[source]▶
People who’ve never lived in or around rural communities tend to stereotype those populations as country bumpkins. Newsmedia doesn’t help.
3. serf ◴[18 Oct 24 20:08 UTC] No.41883001[source]▶
>Where did you get this stereotype of farmers?

it's not a hard guess even if you don't share the opinion ; nearly every movie where 'farmer' is a plot point demonstrates a rural-living poorly educated family living in dust-bowl conditions and barely scraping enough resource by to feed the animals.

grapes of wrath, wizard of oz, of mice and men, o brother where art thou, ballad of buster scruggs -- yes it's a stereotype , but it's a common one in movies and literature.

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4. AyyEye ◴[18 Oct 24 20:18 UTC] No.41883083[source]▶
The mass media likes to portray farmers as straw-chewing hicks. It's the farmer stereotype.

I even saw a conversation on here a few months back where someone on here not-so-nicely corrected a user that the big industrial farmers are smart but the rest of them are backwoods hicks that barely know what electricity is.

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5. FredPret ◴[18 Oct 24 20:28 UTC] No.41883167[source]▶
Maybe I haven't noticed this since I got inoculated against this notion by the reality of farmers early on.

It still seems surprising to me that this idea can survive more than five seconds of thought. Farmers own tracts of land, lots of equipment, and have to navigate the market for their product, financing, capital allocation, weather patterns, all sorts of random events. They frequently have dozens of employees, and constantly have to negotiate with those, and with customers, and with vendors.

All of this is in addition to the actual growing of crops.

It seems like the most natural thing in the world that this type of person won't take kindly to being dictated to by John Deere (doesn't mean it doesn't happen anyway) and would try their hand at a bit of hacking if needs must.

6. t-3 ◴[18 Oct 24 21:13 UTC] No.41883531[source]▶
It's endemic to urban areas of the US, where "rural" has the connotation of ignorant, backwards, stupid, inbred, etc., and "farmer" is the epitome of rural. Bog-standard xenophobia and classism.
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7. FredPret ◴[18 Oct 24 22:09 UTC] No.41883954[source]▶
It’s an interesting form of classism because I’d bet the average farmer is vastly better off than the average cubicle slave, in addition to being masters of their domain.
8. dreamcompiler ◴[19 Oct 24 04:42 UTC] No.41885700[source]▶
I saw a comment recently on HN about how farmers exemplified unsophisticated investors who would never be able to understand complicated financial instruments.

I pointed out that futures trading was literally invented by farmers.

9. freedomben ◴[19 Oct 24 14:35 UTC] No.41887993[source]▶
> Where did you get this stereotype of farmers?

It would probably be easier to describe where one would not get this stereotype. Pretty much every city person (which as many sibling comments have pointed out, control essentially all media and pop culture) holds and perpetuates that stereotype.

Pretty much only people who are or know farmers know the reality behind it.

But I do think it's important to point out that farmers are a very diverse group, just like many other professions. There are geniuses and there are morons. You can't take a sample size of n <= 5 and extrapolate characteristics of millions of people.