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We're going to hook my laptop up to this combine and try to get codes out of it, I guess. I would say what I'm doing is hacking. Farms today use a tremendous amount of technology. Deer Mates claims that they only really have the license to use their software. And for someone to say they own the software pretty much takes away the whole viability of the entire tractor or piece of equipment. The only person that can repair those tractors to a great extent is the dealership. I mean, look at the size of this machine. If I had to haul this thing 100 miles every time something went wrong with it, it'd cost a fortune. I mean, just to get it on a truck is $1,000, and by the time you get it hauled somewhere and get it hauled back, you're $2,000 into fixing something maybe relatively minor. What we've had developed is essentially a monopoly on repair. We live in a disposable society. When our technology breaks, we replace it. But the art of repair is still practiced by a select few in our tech-obsessed culture. Tractors are the workhorses of agriculture. But unlike the past, the tractor of today is a complex computerized system that relies on embedded software to function. While technology has made tractors more efficient, it has made repair nearly impossible for farmers who need access to the software to repair their equipment. We went to Nebraska to meet the people at the forefront of Right to Repair, a movement fighting large tech companies for access to the diagnostic software needed to fix our things. I am actually the fifth generation farming here on this operation where you sit today. We've been around for a while, since the mid-1800s. The kids laugh because she's my cat. She follows me around more. The big tractors over here we use for the day-to-day operations in row crop farming. Anything that requires a lot of horsepower, a lot of traction, those are both big issues for us. Smaller tractors like this little guy here we use for maintenance of the yard. We use them a lot. These little tractors we use a lot in the vegetable operation. This is the tractor that I learned to drive tractor on. One of the things growing up on a farm that happens is you learn to do everything very young. As soon as I could sit on the very front edge of that seat and push that clutch in, I learned how to drive. And the beauty of that tractor in terms of repair is I can go anywhere and get parts for it. We could tear this thing down and overhaul it in probably a week's time. It's a different era for sure. The earliest developments were in the engines. And probably from the mid-80s we started to see computerized components in engines to the point where in the mid-90s essentially the entire engine is run by the computer. And so now today all functions of the tractor are run by the computer. The seat in that tractor over there is more complicated than this entire tractor. As tractors have become more high-tech, the repairs have become more challenging. We do not have the ability to hook up a computer to a tractor to diagnose it, to repair it, or even to activate components that we may buy to put on that tractor, particularly with older tractors. We would buy used parts and put on them to save money. And today I can go out and there are used parts for these tractors, these newer tractors that are available. But if I put them on, the tractor won't run. This receiver is for the most part a perfectly functioning receiver. What this does is it receives satellite signals from GPS satellites. TCM in this is broken. It's not functioning. What we were told by Deere is, well, we don't support this anymore. So essentially what they did was they forced us to buy a new unit because they won't support this anymore and we can't get the repairs for it. This is actually my house, really. I work from a home, I guess you'd call it, but I got buildings I put up around here just so I could work from home. This is my latest project I worked on. We call it the Luda Crusher, but it's a monster truck I built. My business is Luda Cadiesel. I basically have a repair shop and what I do is pretty much mostly is just repair John Deere equipment, just because I used to work at a John Deere dealership for 23 years and all the customers know me. So they come in and it's been great. If say it was actually a computer fault where the computer itself was damaged or whatnot and it stopped communicating and had to replace it, I could physically replace the computer, but the computers come basically brain dead, so you have to have software from John Deere for this serial number tractor. My biggest situation that I can't fix everything, every situation now, is because I don't have a John Deere service advisor, a laptop, I can't connect to the equipment, pretty restricted on what I can do as far as the new equipment. One of the things I've been told some guys are doing to deal with these issues is there's pirated software out there from Eastern Europe that guys are utilizing to try to get around this to be able to work on their tractors themselves. I believe the software I got is a hacked version of John Deere's system. When it comes to tractors, I mean I farm so out of necessity they break down and I have to repair them in one way or another and it's a lot cheaper to do it myself than it is to haul it into a repair shop or dealer to have it fixed. We got lots of, I mean everywhere on a combine there's a sensor here and a sensor there and every single little part of it has an electrical sensor in it. A couple of years ago we were doing custom anhydrous as a fertilizer on corn fields and you have a real small window to be able to get this done in the year and the tractor broke down so I had to find the software to be able to repair my tractor and make my customer happy and make a living. There's a whole selection of the machines based on serial numbers and what they are and you got to pick the one out that's the right serial number for this machine and then you'll be able to come over here. Once you're able to get into this, you know, I can go in and I can do a diagnostic on it and it'll start checking all the codes and looking for what I have wrong and then I can go up here and I can look at them and see what the problem is and why it's popping up. In 2015, the Library of Congress granted an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that makes it legal for farmers to hack their tractors for the purposes of repair. But software modification is still against John Deere's Terms of Service, which were updated soon after the ruling. Despite this, Right to Repair is a growing movement that's turning ordinary farmers like Guy Mills into activists. I wrote an op-ed in the paper after I researched the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. I talked to some other people and other farmers after I wrote this op-ed and they said, hey, we really like what you said. I said, you know, maybe we should do something about this. So I made a resolution for our local Nebraska corridors and I said, let's put something in our bylaws there that we support a right to repair. And who could argue with that? Then Lydia Brosh, and I must commend her, she'd come in with LB67. I am six names down. The Fair Repair Act gives an individual the ability, you've always had the right, but the ability to purchase the diagnostic tools and to take it somewhere local or to try to repair the equipment yourself. Apple and Microsoft showed up to the hearing in Lincoln. Why would Apple care about whether a farmer from Nebraska works on his tractor? LB67 got the attention of big tech companies because it affects the repair of all electronics, including smartphones, computers, and of course, tractors. Again, the way the bill is drafted, it says that any product that is sold and used in the state of Nebraska. If I'm the big guy, what I do is I just don't sell my products in the state of Nebraska because they have to be sold here. If it's online, I don't sell to anybody who has a zip code in Nebraska. And if I'm a little manufacturer, I move out of the state of Nebraska. We get lobbyists on occasion, but never has anyone flown in to discourage me from introducing a bill. And their points, I believe, were not valid. I don't believe it's valid that this would open a mecca for hackers. They stated their case, they were doing their job, and I believe I'm doing my job in protecting constituents and helping them, you know, to be able to grow economies in our local towns. If the bill passes, I can go buy this cable instead of building my own, and I would be able to just hook into the data port and be able to get all the information that I need right there. I wouldn't have to improvise and build my own stuff to be able to see what's going on. LB 67, or the Fair Repair Act, is still being held by the Nebraska State Legislature. As of the beginning of 2018, 12 states are considering similar bills. John Deere declined our request to visit Nebraska dealerships, but they gave us a statement regarding Right to Repair. When I see the implement dealers, and you do see them, they're people on your main street, you know, you don't wish them any ill. You know, you wish them success, you want them to continue to serve the community. And I think they can do that as they access, or give you access, to the technology of the diagnostics. It's just the diagnostics, folks. It's really interesting. These older tractors are still capable of going out and doing a day's work. And I wonder, with all the technology we have in the newer tractors, if the same will be true of them when they're that same age.