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How a Silicon Valley trend is impacting an $8B Canadian farm industry
Some companies make their products incompatible with other brands, citing copyright reasons, though critics say it prevents competition. Normally associated with the tech industry, the tactic is showing up in new sectors, like farm equipment manufacturing. A new bill hopes to change that.
"The farmer, out of frustration, will end up spending more money just buying two things that are the same brand so they work together," said Allam, who grows wheat, barley, canola and other crops on his farm east of Edmonton. While it should mean Canadian manufacturers no longer face a legal risk for reverse-engineering their products to work with other brands, they would still be stuck spending time and money trying to catch up with other businesses' software updates. "I don't go to jail, but I still burn $1.5 million of the company's money making this header work with that combine," said Scott Smith, component systems and integration manager for Honey Bee.
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