I'm about to reply to both the quoted messages as if they were posted by the same person. Sorry, I know that's lazy but I hope you can both ascertain which words are meant to address which quote.
I am not a socialist; I don't subscribe to the idea of an evil corporate elite and I don't aim to intentionally take money out of the pockets of an honest company that tries to offer an honest product. Nor am I an anarchist who wishes to thumb my nose at the government and side-step every law that I can, just because. I (mostly) believe in emissions controls and I don't want to roll coal on my tractor. I merely believe in the sovereignty of ownership, and what I paid for, I get to do with as I wish (within the confines of the law). I respect John Deere's Intellectual Property and I would not intentionally and knowingly download pirated versions of their expensive programming software. I recognize the investment that they made, and I would not steal that from them. However, if I were to purchase a John Deere tractor (I wouldn't), I would not respect John Deere's claim of continued ownership over the software contents of MY tractor. I would have no moral or ethical qualms about hacking the tractor. Just as I have none in regards to hacking my own LS tractor. The only reason I haven't hacked my own, is lack of experience and confidence.
A quick aside... I own a Flir E4 thermal camera. I bought the camera with the express intent to hack it. Flir sell the "E" line of cameras with a range of resolutions from 80x60 pixels (E4, $949) to 320x240 pixels (E8, $2,999). All the cameras in that product line are exactly the same. Same hardware, different firmware. My E4 camera has the same 320x240 pixel sensor as the E8, and I hacked the camera to remove the sofware handicap which limited it to 80x60 pixels. I now have an equivalent E8 camera and I only paid 1/3 the price for it. I (somewhat) understand and respect Flir's business strategy; they want to offer a range of cameras with varying functionality appealing to different markets; this allows them to make more sales. They want to have a "cheap" camera that someone like me would buy, as well as a more expensive, more functional version that a bigger company might invest in. But, having multiple production lines running concurrently, pumping out physically different cameras, apparently costs more than what they're doing. So they just standardize on one set of physical components and sell it with varying degrees of self-imposed limitations. Wacky, but it seems to work for them. I respect their decision on how they choose to do business, but once I've paid them $949 for a camera and taken possession of it, it's mine, and I'll do whatever I want with it, up to and including removing their self defeating code.
LS is doing the same thing. My 40HP tractor is physically exactly the same as the 45HP, 50HP and the 55HP tractor. Same engine, same emissions system, physically the same in every way except the programming in the ECU. I've bought the tractor and it's mine. I'll unlock that extra 15HP if I so please (so long as it's not illegal in DMCA terms, of which I'm not 100% certain of yet). If LS can get 55HP out of this engine without exceeding EPA emissions limits, then so can I. I don't want to kill the planet or my engine. I just want to get the best possible return on my investment. Nothing personal against LS, I respect their decision on how they run their business, but now that I've made the purchase, the decision about what to do with it is mine.
