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Here's my analysis of what's going to happen if this goes through. First, quote from the MOU [1]: > AFBF agrees to encourage state Farm Bureau organizations t
by boltzmann-brain 4y ago
Here's my analysis of what's going to happen if this goes through.
First, quote from the MOU [1]:
> AFBF agrees to encourage state Farm Bureau organizations to recognize the commitments made in this MOU and refrain from introducing, promoting, or supporting federal or state "Right to Repair" legislation that imposes obligations beyond the commitments in this MOU. In the event any state or federal legislation or regulation relating to issues covered by this MOU and/or "Right to Repair" is enacted, each of AFBF and Manufacturer reserve the right, upon fifteen (15) days written notice, to withdraw from this MOU.
It might play out like this:
1. Deere starts a half hearted parts process. They will provide some parts, there will be year long delays in roll out, it will be annoying to use, documentation will be made incomplete on purpose by leaving out random pages or drawings and there will be no way to get them to fix it.
2. Farmers are now locked into using this service for their existing deere equipment because anything else will bankrupt them. Those machines will remain in service for a good 10-20 years which is an important time frame, because
3. Deere will spin off a subsidiary or buy a competitor which will sell what used to be Deere branded technology, "under license". This "new company" will keep all the anti-repair technology in place. New products will primarily come from this company going forward, and the products will be priced so that actual Deere-branded products are not competitive any more, especially second-hand ones.
4. It is now 2028. The MOU cannot be broken because farmers still need parts for their "old" Deere products. Deere anti right to repair lives on in the artificial competitor, which now retains 90% market ownership. Farmers cannot argue for right to repair any more. They've been sold out. Everything has gone back to normal for at least the next 25 years, as far as Deere is concerned.
[1] https://www.fb.org/files/AFBF_John_Deere_MOU.pdf https://www.fb.org/files/AFBF_John_Deere_MOU.pdf
- BuckyBeaver 4y agoWow, this just heaps more disgrace on Deere. Despicable.
- boltzmann-brain 4y agoIt's almost certainly what is going to happen. They're just buying time (a LOT OF time) in order to regroup and come back in force and once again take away our right to repair or own our things, this time in a new, more permanent method, which is now also protected legislatively.
- Lutger 4y agoI only hope a very aggressive competitor emerges that disrupts Deere out of existence. Sometimes I wonder why groups such as farmers dont band together to form a collective which can protect them against such predatory companies.
- mindslight 4y agoBecause you can trademark colors, and ultimately the color is the most important aspect of a tractor.
- rowanajmarshall 4y agoThey have - agricultural co-ops are popular and common for exactly those reasons. They haven't moved into ag equipment yet though (at least in a big way), I'm guessing since modern equipment is complicated and advanced enough that it makes sense to have a separate organisation that designs and builders them.
- LgWoodenBadger 4y agoJD makes it incredibly easy to finance equipment, which I doubt a competitor could do. It’s not like there’s a lack of competition anyway.
- WastingMyTime89 4y agoDeere already has plenty of competitors. CNH taken as a whole is approximately the same size if you look at the global market. Farmers are not prisoners of Deere. They can just buy another brand.
- CamperBob2 4y agoNot really true, given Deere's patent portfolio.
- themitigating 4y ago[flagged]
- mherdeg 4y agoI think what you're saying is there's a market for (1) go and do farm work for a few years, doing anything anybody needs for a few medium sized operations and talking to everybody (2) pick one product and advertise that you're building a competitor, emphasize that it's maintainable in the field and made from commodity parts (3) struggle to actually launch or sell it because manufacturing physical stuff is incredibly hard. Take lots of outside investment (4) ship 100 units and credibly claim to be able to ship many more (5) Deere will buy you for $1bn and shut it down, which was your plan the whole time
- 3np 4y agoYou're conveniently missing the crucial part of 5k subscribers to your newsletter. For 1b you may even need 10k.
- dsfyu404ed 4y agoAlternatively Deere will lobby to get the EPA or some other bureaucracy to add an Oxford comma somewhere there wasn't one before necessitating expensive major revision to everything you make and you will be bankrupt long before the courts rule that no they didn't really have the authority to make that rule change.