In a ruling that will be noted in many other US States, an agreement has been signed by representatives of California farmers and equipment dealers which will make it easier for farmers to diagnose and repair equipment without accessing or downloading proprietary software or code.
Leaders of the Far West Equipment Dealers Assn. (FWEDA) and the California Farm Bureau Federation (CFBF) signed the agreement at the Belkorp AG equipment dealership in Stockton, California
With the “right-to-repair” agreement, equipment dealers commit to providing access to service manuals, product guides, on-board diagnostics and other information that would help a farmer or rancher to identify or repair problems with the machinery. The agreement includes restrictions. Among them: Source code for proprietary software would not be accessible, and owners would not be able to change equipment in ways that would affect compliance with safety or emissions regulations.
“Reliable farm equipment is crucial to the success of any farming operation, and farmers have long depended on their ability to make repairs quickly in order to keep their equipment running during harvest and other key times,” CFBF President Jamie Johansson said. “This agreement gives farmers the information they need to do just that, even as equipment has become increasingly complex.”
“This agreement says a lot about the relationship between dealers and their customers,” FWEDA President and CEO Joani Woelfel added
Under the agreement, maintenance, diagnostic and repair information not already available will be made available for tractors and combines put into service beginning 2021.
Major corporations in the US, including John Deere, Apple and AT&T have been lobbying to prevent consumers gaining access to technical information citing safety, security and intellectual property concerns.
John Deere has gone as far as to claim that farmers don’t own the tractors they own but instead receive a “licence to operate the vehicle”. They lock users into license agreements that forbid them from even looking at the software running the tractor or the signals it generates
Read US trade magazine, Farm Equipment, editorial on Right to Repair ruling
