Like all DRM, VIN locks are covered by Section 1201 of the #DigitalMillenniumCopyrightAct (#DMCA), a 1998 law that criminalizes distributing tools to bypass "access controls," even if you do so for a lawful purpose (say, to fix your own tractor using a part you paid for). Violations of #DMCA1201 carry a penalty of 5 years in prison and a $500k fine - for a first offense.

3/

This means that Deere owners are locked into using Deere for repairs, which also means that if Deere decides something isn't broken, a farmer *can't* get it fixed. This is very bad news indeed, because John Deere tractors are just computers in a fancy, mobile case, and John Deere is *incredibly bad* at digital security:

pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/rep…

4/

That's scary stuff, because John Deere is a monopolist, and a successful attack on the always-connected, networked tractors and other equipment it supplies to the world's farmers could endanger the global food supply.

Deere doesn't *want* to make insecure tractors, but it also doesn't want to be embarrassed by security researchers who point out that its security is defective.

5/

Because security researchers have to bypass Deere tractors' locks to probe their security, Deere can leverage DMCA1201 into a veto over who gets to warn the public about the mistakes it made.

It's not just security researchers that Deere gets to gag: the company uses its repair monopoly to threaten farmers who complain about its business practices, holding their million-dollar farm equipment hostage to their silence:

pluralistic.net/2022/05/31/dea…

6/

This all adds up to what Jay Freeman calls #FelonyContemptOfBusinessModel, an abuse of copyright law that allows a monopolistic corporation to reach beyond its own walls and impose its will on it customers, critics and competitors:

locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doct…

If Deere was finally suing for peace in the #RepairWars, well, that was wonderful news indeed - as I said, a seeming miracle.

But - like all miracles - it was too good to be true.

7/

Cory Doctorow: IP

You’ve probably heard of “open source software.” If you pay at­tention to the politics of this stuff, you might have heard of “free software” and even know a little ab…

^{Locus Online}

The MOU that Deere and the Farm Bureau signed is full of poison pills, gotchas, fine-print and mendacity, as Lauren Goode documents in her #Wired article, "Right-to-Repair Advocates Question John Deere’s New Promises":

wired.com/story/right-to-repai…

For starters, the MOU makes the Farm Bureau promise to end its advocacy for state Right to Repair bills, which would create a repair system governed by democratically accountable laws, not corporate fiat.

8/

Right-to-Repair Advocates Question John Deere’s New Promises

The tractor maker is accused of blocking farmers from fixing their own equipment. A new agreement offers concessions—but campaigners say it’s not enough.

^{Lauren Goode (WIRED)}