How John Deere Hijacked Copyright Law To Keep You From Tinkering With Your Tractor; Reason, January 8, 2024

 LUKE HOGG , Reason; How John Deere Hijacked Copyright Law To Keep You From Tinkering With Your Tractor

"For nearly 25 years, Section 1201 has been hanging over the developers and distributors of tools that give users more control over the products they own. The ways in which John Deere and other corporations have used the copyright system is a glaring example of regulatory capture in action, highlighting the absurdity of a system where owning a product doesn't necessarily convey the right to fully control it. There are certainly circumstances where the manufacturers are justified in protecting their products from tampering, but such cases should be handled through warranty nullification and contract law, not through exorbitant fines and lengthy prison sentences."

Cappaert v. United States: Oral Argument - January 12, 1976; Oyez

Oyez; Cappaert v. United States

Oral Argument - January 12, 1976

"Warren E. Burger

We will hear arguments next in Nevada against the United States, consolidated with Cappaert against the United States. 

Mr. Lionel, you may proceed when you are ready. 

Samuel S. Lionel

Mr. Chief Justice and may it please the Court. 

This case presents dramatic features of both fact and law, but it can be decided on a narrow basis. 

[Bold added] Factually, this case presents a contest between two endangered species. 

On the one hand, the individual farm operator of the United States whose numbers decline no less than 40% between the years 1959 and 1969 and on the other hand a species of fish known as cyprinodon diabolis."

Killer farm robot dispatches weeds with electric bolts; The Guardian, April 29, 2021

 Damian Carrington, The Guardian; Killer farm robot dispatches weeds with electric bolts

"In a sunny field in Hampshire, a killer robot is on the prowl. Once its artificial intelligence engine has locked on to its target, a black electrode descends and delivers an 8,000-volt blast. A crackle, a puff of smoke, and the target is dead – a weed, boiled alive from the inside.

It is part of a fourth agricultural revolution, its makers say, bringing automation and big data into farming to produce more while harming the environment less. Pressure to cut pesticide use and increasing resistance to the chemicals meant killing weeds was the top priority for the farmers advising the robot company.

The killer robot, called Dick, is the world’s first to target individual weeds in arable crops and, on its first public demonstration, it is destroying broad-leaved weeds identified using pattern recognition. A scout robot, called Tom, has already scanned the field in detail and passed the data to an AI engine called Wilma to plot the targets. Dick’s onboard AI then ensures a bullseye hit."