I’ve got a brand new combine harvester an’ I’ll give you the firmware update key
President Joe Biden is expected this week to sign an executive order directing the formation of rules that ensure Americans have the right to repair… their farming equipment, at least. Though this effort may well extend beyond agriculture, the White House today chose to focus on the farming side of things, presumably because a right-to-repair for farmers was a core Democrat policy in the 2020 US presidential race. As such the order, when it arrives, will reportedly tell the FTC, with support from the government’s agriculture dept, to look into cementing people’s right to fix their gear. The order is also expected to tackle competition in US military contracts, the world of cellphone companies, and delayed airline baggage. «As part of the President’s forthcoming executive order on competition,» said Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday, «the US Department of Agriculture announced it will engage in a series of rulemakings to increase competition in agricultural industries to boost farmers’ and ranchers’ earnings, fight back against abuses of power by giant agribusiness corporations, and give farmers the right to repair their own equipment how they like.» For those not aware, modern tractors and other farming equipment, such as those from John Deere, are embedded computers on wheels that may require proprietary software tools and updates to repair them. Farmers would like the freedom to carry out that work themselves, including running their own firmware to fix issues or bypass their tractors’ DRM, or get an independent place to do it for them.
