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And Finally Business News Digital Labels & Publishers
Tractors: The next step in the evolution of music piracy
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 22 April 2015
Online music piracy is probably not the torment to the music industry it once was, but that does not mean it’s gone away entirely. In fact, there are still plenty of innovations happening in this arena. And the next could be the most terrifying of all: Tractors.
This warning has apparently been sent out by tractor maker John Deere, which is currently trying to argue that farmers who buy its machinery only licence the software by which it’s then controlled. Citing protections provided by the good old Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the US, the company has claimed that it should not be forced to give tractor owners access to that software, in order to modify, upgrade or repair the machines, for a variety of reasons. All arguments on which the US Copyright Office will rule on in July.
But in the meantime, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has commented on the John Deere copyright claims in a report actually focused on a filing made by US car makers, and it reveals that “John Deere even argued that letting people modify car computer systems will result in them pirating music through the on-board entertainment system, which would be one of the more convoluted ways to copy media (and the exemption process doesn’t authorise copyright infringement, anyway)”.
So, there you have it. Record labels! Unite against the tyranny of tractors! Though please do be aware that this is not today’s biggest tractor story.
