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Comment by pugworthy | Hacker News Reader

Dystopian versions of this are interesting to imagine.

Suppose the whole Keurig's DRM idea is applied to automated farm equipment. Want to plant some seeds? They have to be from a given source. Want to plant a certain crop, you can't plant it unless it's treated with a given pesticide. Inline sensors detect exactly what you are dispensing.

This all works because if you want to automate the driving, you have to integrate with the dispensing of things: seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, etc. If you don't, you need a person

Of course there is a flipside where that can be used to prevent you from using illegal pesticides, as those same in-line sensors could prevent dispensing of undesired things.

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> Want to plant some seeds? They have to be from a given source.

IIRC this was the major source of Monsanto's controversies, they claimed that their seed genomes were covered under patent law and farmers were not allowed to grow more plants using the seeds from their existing plants. They'd have to buy more seeds from Monsanto every season.

More like you're not allowed to use patented genestock that pollinated your own non-Monsanto crop.

Isn’t this the equivalent of if your neighbors prize bull got out and impregnated your entire herd of cows, trying to then sue your neighbor for theft of property?

From what I've read it'd be more equivalent of the bull getting out, you hearing about it and going to look for the bull, then forcing the bull to inseminate all your cows knowing that your neighbor typically charges $10k per.

I don't think this is an accurate characterization of the issue, if you are referencing the Schmeiser case then that wasn't the basis for Monsanto's complaint (although it was the basis of his failed defence).

It is really fun to imagine :).

I am imaging the horrors of an HP printer ecosystem on a farm... Which now makes me wonder why HP printers do not require special HP paper.

Fortunately, there is not much moat here. If John Deere demonstrates that self-driving tractors are a massive profit win for farmers, you'll see 10 competitors pop out of the startup sphere within a year.

> Which now makes me wonder why HP printers do not require special HP paper.

in the case of cartridges, the Hé cartridges came first, then the compatible ones. In the case of paper, it existed before HP printers.