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You buy the tractor, but John Deere keeps the keys: software locks have long barred farmers from making their own repairs.
John Deere spent years restricting the software and diagnostic tools farmers need to fix their own equipment and broke its promises to change, until a July 2026 FTC settlement moved to require Deere to give farmers and independent mechanics the same tools as its dealers for 10 years.
Published Sep 21, 2026
What happened
For years, John Deere has faced intense scrutiny for monopolizing the agricultural repair market, triggering a high-stakes battle over software ownership and the 'Right to Repair.
John Deere restricts access to the repair software and diagnostic tools farmers need, forcing them to rely on authorized dealers instead of fixing equipment themselves or using independent shops.
Without access to Deere tools, farmers can be locked out of even basic repairs. That leads to equipment downtime during critical periods of planting and harvest seasons. By shutting independent repair out of the market, Deere has allegedly inflated repair costs.
Deere promised in 2018 to make repair tools available by 2021 and never delivered, signed a second agreement with the American Farm Bureau Federation in 2023 that advocates equated to nothing more than a ‘pinky swear.’
In July 2026, the FTC secured a historic, legally binding settlement. Under this 10-year court order, Deere is legally required to provide farmers and independent mechanics with the exact same software capabilities and diagnostic tools provided to its authorized dealers.
Sec. 1201 of the DMCA still gives John Deere and other tractor makers the exclusive right to make comprehensive software diagnostics and tools. Until that changes, farmers will own their iron but not the code that makes it run.
FULU's takeaway
Deere broke a 2018 promise to open up repair tools, signed a 2023 agreement advocates saw as toothless, and only agreed to give farmers dealer-level access once the FTC and five states took it to court.
Why this is a law problem
Most of these entries involve a digital lock guarding copyrighted software, and a lock like that sits under Section 1201 of the DMCA, 17 U.S.C. 1201. Subsection 1201(a)(1) makes it unlawful to bypass a lock that controls access to a copyrighted work, even when no copyright is infringed. Subsections 1201(a)(2) and 1201(b)(1) separately ban making or distributing the tools that do the bypassing.
Every three years the Librarian of Congress can exempt narrow classes of uses from the first ban. An exemption expires after three years and has to be re-argued, and the rulemaking has no authority over the tool bans, so a granted exemption still leaves no lawful supplier for the means to use it. FULU exists to reform or revoke this statute.
If you want this law changed, donations fund the work. FULU is a 501(c)(4). Donations to FULU are not tax-deductible, which is the tradeoff for being able to lobby without a limit.
Nothing on these pages says any company named here violated Section 1201. FULU is not a law firm, and this is not legal advice.
The original post
The slides below are the originals as posted. Where a slide and the text on this page disagree, go by the text; the text is the corrected, sourced record. Some slides also print an old wiki address that no longer works. The links on this page are current.
Originally published as an Instagram carousel on Sep 21, 2026: See Instagram post.
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