American farmers crack and install Ukrainian firmware on tractors

    In August 2015, an article entitled “ Independent repair of a John Deere tractor - violation of the DMCA law ” was published , which said that the owners of John Deere tractors cannot independently fix the problems that occurred - you must wait for the vehicle to arrive from the company or drive the tractor to the official dealer, which may be at a distance of several tens of kilometers.

    If there is something wrong with the details of the tractor, the information is displayed on its display. For example, the farmer had such a case: the drive belts lost their tension.
    But, unfortunately, I had to wait a whole day when the official representative of the company would arrive. Diagnostics of the fact that only one sensor failed, cost the owner $ 120.



    The tractor software is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and if it is violated, it can be fined up to 500 thousand US dollars and / or imprisonment for up to five years. Initially, the law was invented to combat digital piracy and there were no precedents with farmers.

    In July 2016, the material “ Farmers in the USA are still trying to get the right to repair their own John Deere tractors ” came out , which said that farmers were trying to “push through” the amendments to this law.

    However, based on the Motherboard material published the other day , it becomes clear that with independent repairs of tractors everything is still not good. Or vice versa, depending on how you look: American farmers crack and install Ukrainian firmware on tractors.


    To avoid the draconian restrictions that John Deere puts on the tractors they sell, American farmers began installing firmware that was hacked in Eastern Europe and sold on online forums with paid invitations.

    Hacking tractors is becoming increasingly popular because John Deere and other manufacturers have made it impossible to carry out the so-called "unauthorized" repair of agricultural equipment.

    “When at the most necessary moment we break, most likely we don’t have time to wait for the dealer representative to appear and fix the problem. And almost all new hardware requires software downloads to fix, ”says Danny Kluthe, a Nebraska farmer.

    Farmers are concerned that John Deere can remotely turn off the tractor, and then the farmer can not do anything.

    The license agreement, which the company demanded to sign in October, prohibits almost any repair and modification of equipment. It also does not allow farmers to sue for "crop loss, lost profits, loss of reputation ... as a result of work or software malfunction." The agreement applies to anyone who turns the key in the ignition of a John Deere tractor using firmware. This means that only dealers and workshops authorized by the manufacturer can work with new tractors.

    “If a farmer bought a tractor, he should be able to do whatever he wants with him,” says Kevin Kenney, a farmer and human rights activist from Nebraska, “You want to replace the gearbox and entrust this to an independent mechanic — he can put a new transmission, but will not be able to leave the workshop. Deere charges $ 230 plus $ 130 per hour when a technician arrives and connects the connector to the USB port to authorize the replacement of the part. ”

    The forums contain dozens of threads from farmers who are trying to fix and modify their tractors. According to them, most of the software is hacked in such Eastern European countries as Poland and Ukraine, and is sold to farmers in the United States.



    For sale or free download on the forums, keygens are offered for license keys, modifiers to remove the speed limit, cables that allow you to connect the tractor to the computer, and on YouTube there are videos with demonstration software in action.



    “What will happen in 20 years when a new tractor appears and John Deere will no longer want to repair them?” We have to throw the tractor in the garbage, or what? ”, - asks the farmer.

    Also popular now: