Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #VINLocking
Most recents (3)
Last week, a seeming miracle came to pass: @JohnDeere, the #BigAg #monopolist that - along with @Apple - has led the Axis of Evil that killed, delayed and sabotaged dozens of #RightToRepair laws, sued for peace. 1/ 
They announced a Memorandum of Understanding with the American Farm Bureau Federation to make it easier for farmers to fix their own tractors:
fb.org/files/AFBF_Joh…
This is a move that's both badly needed and long overdue. 2/
fb.org/files/AFBF_Joh…
This is a move that's both badly needed and long overdue. 2/
Deere abuses copyright law to force farmers to pay for official repairs - even when the farmer does the repair. That's possible thanks to a practice called #VINLocking, in which engine parts come with #DRM that prevents the tractor from recognizing. 3/
Two visions competed at the dawn of the modern digital era: computers could be a way to empower people to push back against corporate and state control; or computers could transfer power from the public to corporations or governments. 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/12/03/pai… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/12/03/pai… 2/
I've always been baffled by the technologists who pursued control over liberation: surely their own formative experiences were of the liberatory power of technology. 3/
This week on my podcast, I read my @Medium column, "About Those Killswitched Ukrainian Tractors," in which I am a buzzkill about that feel-good story of a Ukrainian John Deere dealership bricking $5m worth of tractors stolen by Russian looters:
doctorow.medium.com/about-those-ki… 1/
doctorow.medium.com/about-those-ki… 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/05/20/sel… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/05/20/sel… 2/
In case you missed the underlying story, here's a quick recap. Russian looters, abetted by the Russian military, stole $5m worth of tractors and combines from a Deere dealership in Melitopol, Ukraine. 3/
