Dina Temple Ralston (2:59)

from recorded future news. This is Click here. Inside a modern combine, you don't just see waves of grain moving past the windshield. You see a whole system interpreting it. Coordinates, yield data, real time maps. The land itself is translated into something a machine can understand. And this is where Danny Wood spends most of his days.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (3:36)

My name's Danny Wood and I live two miles west of Peet's, Colorado, which is in the northeast corner of Colorado.

Dina Temple Ralston (3:45)

Peet's is a small town of a few hundred people near the Nebraska line. Dry land farming there. No irrigation, just rain. And Danny's a fourth generation farmer.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (3:57)

I live in the house that my grandfather and grandmother lived in and I've lived here all my life. We have a big enough farm. We're busy with the farm all the time.

Dina Temple Ralston (4:06)

Same house, same land. But the machine he's sitting in, it tells a different story. Because the combine doesn't just run on diesel anymore, it runs on software too. And it turns out that changes what happens when it breaks. Because fixing it doesn't start with a wrench. It begins with code. A language Danny doesn't speak. A few years ago, Danny and his son bought a new combine. First day out, everything looked good, everything was great.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (4:39)

We're going to start combining next morning. Started combining. The thing went probably, oh, 100 yards and it derated itself to an idle.

Dina Temple Ralston (4:56)

100 yards in, it stops and an error code flashes. No explanation, no manual, just a message Danny can't make sense of. And that's when he realizes he doesn't just have a mechanical problem, he has an access problem because the software is locked and only the dealer can open it. So Danny gave them a call.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (5:20)

Well, they said, we're so busy that it'll be five days before we can get there.

Dina Temple Ralston (5:25)

Five days. Not to fix it, just to arrive and take a look. And for nearly a week, his combine sat at the edge of the field doing nothing. And when the tech finally showed up, he plugged in a laptop, tapped a few keys, and announced that a cluster of tubes around the exhaust had cracked and they needed to be replaced.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (5:46)

I said, do you have them? No. I said, do you have them at your shop? No. I said, well, how long is it going to take? He said, well, it'll take three days for him to get here. I said, you'll be right back and fix it then? He said, no, after they show up, then we have to schedule another service call and it'll be another five days. I told him, well, that's completely ridiculous.

Dina Temple Ralston (6:09)

Danny could already see where this was going. Every hour that machine wasn't moving was money he'd never get back.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (6:17)

And at say $4 a bushel, that's $2,400 an hour you're losing by that combine sitting there, which anytime a hailstorm can come through and wipe the wheat crop out.

Dina Temple Ralston (6:28)

So this wasn't just a breakdown, it was a bottleneck. A machine he owned, but couldn't use when it mattered.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (6:35)

I mean, you go out and spend half a million dollars on a piece of equipment and then you can't use it just because they are too busy and they won't have time.

Dina Temple Ralston (6:45)

And it wasn't the first time. A few years earlier, a tractory had same story. It broke down, he had to wait. The tech showed up days later. But this time the fix wasn't apart. The tech just punched a five digit code into his computer and the tractor was running again.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (7:07)

And it took him a matter of two minutes to do this. And then everything worked right.

Dina Temple Ralston (7:13)

A few days after that, a bill came in the mail. $900 for the tech's two minutes of work. Now here's the thing about Danny. He knows how to fix things. He trained as a diesel mechanic. Engines, hydraulics, heavy equipment. So he's the kind of person who doesn't wait around if something breaks. But this time there was nothing to roll his sleeves up for. And the barrier wasn't physical. It was a permission. The software that ran the machine didn't belong to him. So he had no choice but to wait. And that's when Danny started to realize that this wasn't just happening to him. It was something much bigger than that.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (7:56)

A cause called farmer's right to repair.

Recorded Future News Announcer (7:59)

A farmer's right to repair their own equipment.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (8:01)

The right to repair.

Dina Temple Ralston (8:07)

If Danny's story is about waiting, Kyle Schwartz is about what happens when you decide not to.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (8:16)

My name is Kyle Schwarting. I'm a farmer in eastern Nebraska, mainly.

Dina Temple Ralston (8:20)

Like Danny, Kyle came up as a mechanic, comfortable with wiring diagrams, diagnostics, and figuring out things on his own.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (8:28)

Coming from the car world, we could get access to things like wiring diagrams.

Dina Temple Ralston (8:34)

And that was the difference. When he was fixing a car, he had access. When he was fixing his tractor, he didn't. To him, that didn't feel like a limitation of the machine. It felt like a decision made somewhere else. So he made one of his own. He went looking online.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (8:55)

I just googled it, the pirated service advisor program and started reading through them.

Dina Temple Ralston (9:03)

He searched forums, message boards, until he finally found something that looked like it would do the trick?

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (9:10)

It was a Czechoslovakia version about it.

Dina Temple Ralston (9:15)

Pirated dealer software from Czechoslovakia. The same tool that companies like Case IH and John Deere had been keeping away from him. He bought it for about $500. A few weeks later, when his tractor broke down again, Kyle didn't call the dealer. He reached for his laptop. He plugged it into the machine and held his breath, not entirely sure what he was going to get back. And then the system opened, and instead of an error code, he got an actual diagnosis. The tractor had a yield sensor problem. Clear enough to understand, specific enough to fix. So tell me, the first time you plugged this pirated version in your John Deere combine, that was having trouble? Like, what did it feel like when it's booted up and told you what the problem was? I mean, were you saying, hot damn, this works, I don't have to call them?

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (10:12)

Yes, I was happy. Don't get me wrong. You know, I mean, it sure makes you feel a lot better when you realize that, yeah, this is going to work and I'm going to get the information that I need to be able to fix this.

Dina Temple Ralston (10:24)

It's not just relief you hear there. It's recognition. For the first time, Kyle wasn't waiting on someone else to tell him what was wrong. He was seeing it for himself, on his own terms, in real time. There was no dealer, no delay, no middleman, just information he could act on. Unfortunately, that access didn't last, because before long, his pirated software stopped working. The connection disappeared. And then, just like that, the door closed again. For Kyle, that was a clarifying moment, too. It was the moment he realized that this wasn't about one farmer finding a clever workaround. It was about who gets access in the first place and who has the power to take it away. Workarounds like pirated software from Czechoslovakia only get you so far. They're only one software update away from being useless. So there needed to be a more permanent fix. And that's what Danny decided to work on. That's after the break. Stay with us.

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Dina Temple Ralston (12:08)

The Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee will come to order. Ms. Kelly, please call the roll. Danny, the farmer we met at the top of the show, the one whose combine sat idle for days, waiting on a technician, he took his frustration to the Colorado State Capitol. He wanted to tell lawmakers what that downtime really cost and to make the case that farmers like him should be allowed to fix the machines they own. And inside that hearing room, it wasn't about one broken combine anymore. It was about what it meant to own something and how that ownership is an illusion if you need someone else's permission to fix it. And for more than an hour, lawmakers debated the question out loud.

Aaron Perzanowski / Lawmaker / Expert (12:53)

I'm a staunch conservative, proud Republican, and

Dina Temple Ralston (12:56)

trust me, intellectual property, I fight for

Aaron Perzanowski / Lawmaker / Expert (12:58)

every single day when it comes to ownership. When you purchase something, you own it.

Dina Temple Ralston (13:03)

At what point in time are we being stripped of our right to own something? Ownership, he was saying, should mean something.

Aaron Perzanowski / Lawmaker / Expert (13:10)

Farmers take pride in their mechanical savvy to fix their own equipment. But as computerization has seeped into this equipment, their ability to fix them has diminished.

Dina Temple Ralston (13:23)

This was about easing a burden, making it possible for farmers like Danny and Kyle to do what they'd always done. And at first, it seemed like a layup. The room was leaning their way. And then the dealer stepped in and said this wasn't really about fixing machines at all. They said they support repair, just not access. Open up the software, they warned, and you'll be opening the door to something else.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (13:48)

Allowing access to embedded code could put the public at risk for accidents. We do not, however, support their right to modify them as it relates to safety, horsepower, and clean air. I would encourage everyone to vote no.

Dina Temple Ralston (14:00)

Safety, emissions, liability. The argument was familiar. It wasn't so much about control, the companies insisted. It was about protection, everybody's protection. As Danny was sitting there, he could feel the mood in the room starting to shift away from him.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (14:17)

It was a hard sell. They were all against it, and they were trying to bully and scare everybody.

Dina Temple Ralston (14:23)

And then after two hours of that, Danny got his turn. He had three minutes to make his case.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (14:30)

I'm going to tell you a personal story of what we did in August of 2021. I bought a 2020 Case IH Steiger tractor.

Dina Temple Ralston (14:38)

He told them exactly what you just heard. The breakdown, the weight, the technician who shows up days later and fixes the machine in two minutes by punching in a five digit code. And then he tells him what. What it had cost him. Not just in dollars, but in time, in control.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (14:54)

So I think when you buy this stuff for this kind of money, that you should get access to that. We just want to be able to fix the small things.

Dina Temple Ralston (15:03)

And then they vote. Names were called. Votes were counted, and the bill squeaked through. The governor signed it into law in 2023, making Colorado the first state in the country to give farmers the right to repair their own Accord equipment. Danny thought it was a victory. And to be sure, under pressure from lawsuits from farmers and from stores like Danny's, the companies are starting to make a shift. John Deere began offering access to diagnostic tools, the same tools dealers use, Pirated software no longer required. And the bigger shift? It's still unfolding because the question of control doesn't stop at farm equipment. As everything becomes more digitized, it's spreading across industries, across devices, across the things we buy and long assumed we control. Aaron Perzanowski studies this. He's a law professor at the University of Michigan and the author of a book called the Right to Repair. And he says for a long time, ownership came with a kind of expectation. If something broke, you could open it up, figure it out, and fix it, or at least take it to someone who could.

Aaron Perzanowski / Lawmaker / Expert (16:20)

Most of us have a sense that when we buy a product that we control these devices, right? As soon as a device is phoning home to a manufacturer, you lose that independence.

Dina Temple Ralston (16:32)

That's the shift. There's a difference between what you thought you owned and what you are actually allowed to do with it.

Aaron Perzanowski / Lawmaker / Expert (16:40)

Fifty years ago, they could call up their neighbors who might be even more mechanically inclined or have more experience, or they could go to any local repair shop and have them work on that product. Today, we live in a world where you've got to go out and get permission from the manufacturer, and companies have

Dina Temple Ralston (17:00)

good reason for wanting to keep it that way, because repairs are big business. If you control the repair, you control the customer. Which raises another question. If a company makes money every time something breaks, what incentive does it have to make it easy to fix? And that's part of the reason why, in January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission sued Deere Company. It accused the company of driving up repair costs and blocking farmers from fixing their own equipment. Equipment. That case is still ongoing, But Aaron says this is a new definition of ownership. You might own the physical tractor or the car or the refrigerator you bought, but the software that keeps it running wasn't included in the purchase price.

Aaron Perzanowski / Lawmaker / Expert (17:56)

And I think in this moment, it's really crucial to have a. A good grasp on the functionality of technology, just to be a sort of good citizen, right? To understand what's happening in the world, to understand what legal regulations mean for our daily lives, and to try to close the gap between the power of the consumer and the power of the corporation.

Dina Temple Ralston (18:29)

The right to repair sounds like a small thing, a farmer, a code, a two minute fix. But underneath it's something bigger. Because ownership, real ownership, isn't just about having something, it's about what you're allowed to do with it. And who gets to decide. This is Click here.

Recorded Future News Announcer (19:02)

If you're looking for a daily guide to cybersecurity news and policy, sign up for the Cyber Daily from Recorded Future News. It serves up the day's most interesting and important cyber stories from our sister publication the Record, and then aggregates all of the big cyber stories you might have missed from news outlets around the world. Just go to TheRecord Media and click on Cyber Daily to get all you need to know about the world of cybersecurity right in your inbox.

Dina Temple Ralston (19:32)

Here's what you need to know about the tech world this week. It's Tuesday, April 28, in Britain, Cyber attacks are no longer an occasional thing. The head of the UK's National Cybersecurity center says the country is now dealing with multiple, multiple serious incidents every week.

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (19:50)

The majority of the nationally significant incidents

Aaron Perzanowski / Lawmaker / Expert (19:53)

that my teams are handling now originate directly or indirectly from nation states.

Dina Temple Ralston (20:01)

Officials say. Much of that activity can be traced back to Russia, Iran and China.

Aaron Perzanowski / Lawmaker / Expert (20:06)

We know that China's intelligence and military

Danny Wood / Kyle Schwarting / Farmer Representative (20:09)

agencies now display an eye watering level

Aaron Perzanowski / Lawmaker / Expert (20:13)

of sophistication in their cyber operations.

Dina Temple Ralston (20:17)

Russia, meanwhile, is repurposing tactics it developed in Ukraine and turning them outward across Europe. Earlier this month, British authorities warned that Russian intelligence had been hijacking everyday routers, turning them into tools for surveillance and password theft. Iran, for its part, is also carrying out digital operations inside the UK. The British government responded to with a 90 million pound package to boost defenses and says a broader national plan is coming later this year. Meanwhile, at Meta, a new internal policy is raising alarm. The company told US staff that it plans to install software that tracks activity on work computers.

Aaron Perzanowski / Lawmaker / Expert (21:01)

One staff said, this makes me super uncomfortable. How do we opt out? Meta's CTO clarified that actually, you cannot really opt out. This is mandatory.

Dina Temple Ralston (21:10)

Meta says the tool is meant to train AI systems, capturing keystrokes, clicks and even screenshots. Employees say it feels intrusive and there's no option to opt out. Meta says the data won't be used for performance reviews, but legal experts warn it makes clear how little protection US workers have when it comes to digital surveillance. Currently, the US places few limits on it, while countries like Italy outlaw electronic monitoring of employee productivity entirely. For now, Meta has urged their employees to avoid doing anything personal on their work devices. A new report suggests the next wave of surveillance won't happen on your phone. It will target the system. Your phone depends on security Researchers have

Aaron Perzanowski / Lawmaker / Expert (21:58)

uncovered the two separate spying campaigns that are abusing well known weaknesses in the global telecoms infrastructure.

Dina Temple Ralston (22:06)

The finding comes from the Citizen Lab at University of Toronto, which tracks digital surveillance around the world. What they discovered is a shift. Not hacking the device, not planting malware, but quietly using the network itself. Two commercial surveillance firms were able to track phones by exploiting avoiding a basic assumption baked into global telecoms that carriers trust each other. So attackers send requests that look routine, like they're coming from another legitimate network. And the system responds, sometimes with location data. In one case, they took advantage of weaknesses in 3G and 4G protocols. In another, they used invisible messages that communicate directly with a SIM card, never lighting up the screen. Then they routed everything through real telecom providers so that the traffic would blend in. No alerts, no pop ups, no sign anything is wrong. Which means the infrastructure that connects billions of people can also be used to track them. And finally at Apple, a handoff that comes at a complicated moment.

Sponsor / Advertiser Voice (23:15)

The end of an era for Apple. The CEO stepping down.

Dina Temple Ralston (23:20)

The transition closes out more than a decade of steady leadership. In the post Steve Jobs era, under Tim Cook's guidance, Apple expanded beyond its signature devices into wearables, payments and a growing services business. Now the questions are different. How fast can Apple move on AI? How exposed is the company to growing tensions with China? The next CEO, John Ternus, comes from the hardware side of the company company and he's known for making Apple's products work. And last, he'll be taking the helm in September. Click Here is a production of recorded future news and prx. Today's show was written and produced by Megan Dietrich, Sean Powers, Erica Gaeda, Zach Hirsch and Casey Georgie. It was edited by Karen Duffin and Sarah Cavedo and fact check by Darren Ancrum. Original music is by Ben Levingston with additional music from Blue Dot Sessions. Our staff writer is Lucas Riley, our illustrator is Megan Gough, and our sound designers and engineers are Jake Cook and Jesse Niswonger. Find us on X or Facebook @ClickHereShow or leave us a voice message at 6615CH. Talk. Sometimes we'll turn those moments into reporting, sometimes into a conversation and sometimes into a future story you'll hear on this show. I'm Dina Temple Raston and thanks for listening.

Sponsor / Advertiser Voice (24:56)

Support for this program comes from Recorded Future in Cybersecurity the biggest risk isn't what can be seen, it's what gets missed. Recorded Future analyzes billions of signals to help organizations stay ahead of threats. Recorded Future Know what matters?

Recorded Future News Announcer (25:10)

Act first if you're looking for a daily guide to cybersecurity news and policy, sign up for the Cyber Daily from Recorded Future News. It serves up the day's most interesting and important cyber stories from our sister publication the Record, and then aggregates all of the big cyber stories you might have missed from news outlets around the world. Just go to the Record Media and click on Cyber Daily to get all you need to know about the world of cybersecurity right in your inbox.