Why do farmers crack (remodel) software to manage tractors?

ByTony DiGirolamo

It seems that there are frequent cases of cracking software used for all management of tractor in American farm house. There, the Motherboard of the news site reports that there is a dispute over the "right to repair" between the tractor manufacturer and the farmer.

Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware - Motherboard
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/why-american-farmers-are-hacking-their-tractors-with-ukrainian-firmware


The software in question is "Dear and Company" known as the world's largest agricultural machine maker (John Deere) Things. John Deere incorporates software inside the selling tractor and controls all aspects of it.

The problem is that John Deere changed the contents of the license in October 2016, banning almost all repairs and adding functions to the machine, and restricting it to authorized stores only.

Up to now, farmers were able to repair themselves themselves, or they could have the neighbors' experts exchange the transmission, but after the revision of the license, if someone exchanged the transmission without permission, The tractor has stopped moving because it is not certified.

ByLars Plougmann

According to Danny Kruse who runs a farmer in Nebraska state, in order to move tractor which became this condition, it is necessary for the engineer of John Dear to come and ask the part to be certified via USB, and that wage He said that the basic charge is 230 dollars (about 25,500 yen) and the travel cost is 130 dollars per hour (about 14,400 yen).

The programs used by John Deere include "John Deere Service Advisor" which checks the condition of the tractor to analyze the failed part, "John Deere Payload File" which can set the performance of the chassis and the engine, John · "John Dear Electronic Data Link Driver" to assist communication between the computer and tractor used by Dear's service advisor, etc.

Naturally, farmers who have repaired themselves by themselves are strongly rebellious. According to Motherboard, there is a Ukrainian tool to crack the software, information exchange at the membership forum is taking place so that John Dear unauthorized computer and tractor can be connected License key generator and others are said to exist.

In the case of Mr. Kruse who came out earlier, he said he was using cracks because he used pig fertilizer to move the tractor and needed engine customization. However, not only that, but when John Dear was acquired by another company or canceled the sale of the tractor, if the software is not maintained as it is, the tractor will not be usable, so you can manage it yourself There seems to be a desire to keep it.

As a maker, there may be a desire not to do selfish things, but it is a place where you can understand farmers' repulsion because it is quite troublesome for users to say "they will not work unless they do not certify."