Can you imagine these past 100 years not being able to make your own repairs or do diagnostics on your own Ford, Chevy or Volkswagon and only the OEM shop can do the repairs? And at $100+ / hour at todays rates!!! And you have to pay full list for parts from them instead of Pep Boys, Carquest or O'Reilly's auto parts stores? You are not allowed to modify your own vehicle (property) with engine, transmission or suspension parts because the OEM says you will jeopardize safety or emission standards?
This is the excuse John Deere wants use to gain total market control for those repairs on both parts and labor. And in most cases, owners are only asking for the repair manuals and software to do their own work to repair the machines back to standard operating condition. I don't think many are trying to modify these machines or bypass safety systems and if they did...so what? The machine is their property and their own business if they want to wreck it or mess it up. They also get to pay the bill if they end up having Mother Deere fix their screw-ups. This is America! They should have the right to make their own mistakes first.
Those of you who think this is not a problem because you do not own a newer tractor are not seeing the big picture. If this goes through it's just a matter of time before the auto industry follows along with every other tech industry. This is wrong in so many ways. And in the case of the farmer in the article, how about when Mother Deere just up and decides to no longer offer parts, software or repair manuals for a fairly modern tractor? You gonna send a $100,000 tractor to the scrap yard because Mother Deere would rather you to buy a new $250,000 tractor instead? If the software that controls EVERYTHING in a modern tractor is considered Mother Deere's intellectual property, not yours, and they can shut it off or not update it or not service it at any point of time in the future at their whim for any reason and render your tractor worthless because nobody else is allowed by law to have a repair manual or access to software information, then is that really the direction you want this country to go in?
We are talking about tractors today, but it'll be your cars and trucks tomorrow, then your appliances, cell phones and just about anything that has a software program in it. Also keep in mind that the vast majority of people will find today's machinery too complicated to work on themselves anyway but that's besides the point. You should still have the freedom to be able to choose the shop you want to work on it, the parts supplier you want to use for the parts AND have access to the information you need to make the repairs.
Today is the 6th of June, anniversary of D-Day and I should think that all of those fine men who fought and died for our freedoms would be turning over in their graves at how we are loosing yet another of our everyday freedoms that used to be a God given right that we now have to clutch and claw at to fight to hold onto. I find this whole business just sickening.
Upload one or more videos to your post. Photo filesizes should be less than 300K and Videos, less than 2MB. Formats allowed are gif, jpg, png, ogg, mp4, mov, and avi. Be sure to use filenames without spaces or special characters, and filetypes of 3 digits lower case.
We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. [ About Us ]
Today's Featured Article - Third Brush Generators - by Chris Pratt. While I love straightening sheet metal, cleaning, and painting old tractors, I use every excuse to avoid working on the on the electrics. I find the whole process sheer mystery. I have picked up and attempted to read every auto and farm electrics book with no improvement in the situation. They all seem to start with a chapter entitled "Theory of Electricity". After a few paragraphs I usually close the book and go back to banging out dents. A good friend and I were recently discussing our tractor electrical systems when he stated "I figure it all comes back to applying Ohms Law". At this point
... [Read Article]
Latest Ad:
Sell 1958 Hi-Altitude Massey Fergerson tractor, original condition. three point hitch pto engine, Runs well, photos available upon request
[More Ads]
All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy
TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.
