Technical Corner

October 28, 2025

The recreation industry was originally driven by the local agricultural community as farmers volunteered to operate local ice rinks. The mechanical aptitude of farmers to repair most anything mechanical or structural was critical to keeping these facilities operating. Access to specialized service contractors was limited and regulated control of non-certified work was deemed an acceptable practice. In time, operations evolved to where facility staff would perform some of the work and rely on specialized service contractors for specific work. Today, most maintenance is performed by licensed service contractors that would allow facility management to request multiple quotations from service providers to try and control costs however, that way of conducting business is once again evolving but not to the advantage of the consumer.

In a twist of irony, farmers today are one of the first to raise the alarm on how farm equipment suppliers are controlling their operations while making excessive profits through restrictive maintenance controls. Farmers have been held hostage by suppliers like John Deere that have resulted in cost to their operations of $4.2 billion a year by merely restricting them from fixing their own tractors. Farmers suggest that John Deere is following the lead of other suppliers such as Apple, Amazon and major automakers who use the same strategies on most everything we digitally own.

Purchasing the most advanced technology has always been a desire by those seeking to advance a community’s infrastructure. In the recreation industry, it is common for senior administrative staff and elected officials to be heavily involved in the dream stage of facility design and construction. These good intentioned individuals have been programmed to embrace key terms that meet society’s current expectations. Buzz words like energy efficient, advanced technology, environmentally friendly, the most innovative equipment in the marketplace is quickly embraced with little thought on how difficult this will be to operate, manage, and maintain once installed by the staff who are tasked with taking care and control of these assets. What has been quietly lost is the actual control of maintaining equipment either internally or by tapping into local expertise that have the skills to repair equipment. Most everything we own today have sensors, electronic switches and other technology that we may not actually own, even after paying huge amounts of funds to purchase. Here is where the loss of control begins. In the past, with fossil fueled equipment, a mechanic would look for several key elements – does the unit have fuel and spark. If either of these were absent, the focus of the troubleshoot that lead to a repair would begin. Today, most repairs begin with an “error code” that requires a computer to be attached to the equipment to assess the issue – seems simple enough however, these computers and the related software are now owned by the manufacturer who closely guards the technology or demands significant fees to gain personal access to the technology.

Communities have developed extensive policy on “single sourcing” products and services. Many require three quotes to be considered as part of the purchasing process. This system continues to support a fair bidding process however, we have entered an era that must include additional questions in respect to hidden controls post purchase. Suppliers have discovered that the real profits to be had is with the maintenance of the equipment post sale and if they can limit this service to their technicians, they can charge whatever they deem to be reasonable.

The term “parts pairing” refers to a supplier limiting access to their equipment by software limitation that they exclusively own. This approach was invented by Apple who began limiting others from being able to repair their equipment. They began to control repairs by design as the phone battery was being glued to not allow a battery replacement and proprietary screws that held the unit together that did not allow others to have access. Apple is not alone in this approach as many other top brands like Harley Davidson followed with no after market parts being available requiring their Screaming Eagle brand parts and accessories which could only be installed by a licensed Harley shop. If an owner were to bypass this restriction warranty, coverage would be void. If you have wondered why the ice cream machine at McDonalds always seem to be out of service, it is because the supplier Taylor has the same restrictions and not enough service technicians to stay ahead of the repairs.

Today’s facility manager must understand property rights and how it may impact the purchase. In the past, when a piece of equipment was purchased, it came with a printed owners and service manual that the purchaser owned as part of the sale. This was part of an old copyright law called “First Sale Doctrine” What Is the First Sale Doctrine in Trademark Law? - Legal Clarity. This law shifted control of the information from the manufacturer to the owner of the equipment without restriction. This is the law that allows libraries to exist. In the digital world, this has become blurred. Consider purchasing a digital copy of a traditional hard cover book from Amazon and the restrictions attached to this purchase. In this format, the purchaser does not actually own the purchase but have accessed the product through a “licensing agreement” that is restricted in the terms and conditions clicked on at the time of purchase. Under this form of agreement, the historical controls of the First Sale Doctrine no longer apply as ownership remains with the supplier who can control the product as they deem fit. So, applying this would find that the digital book purchased from Amazon will only allow access to the book on an approved device while having an active account with Amazon. Amazon controls this by placing digital locks on the book which will not allow the sharing of the book or reselling.

What has occurred is a book purchase has been made with an invisible string back to the seller. This string technically is called “Digital Rights Management” (DRM) What Is DRM? Digital Rights Management Explained | Fortinet which is on most every digital product. People have always tried to figure out how to circumvent copyright restrictions. In this case, if a person did get around the DRM restriction, they would be violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) The Digital Millennium Copyright Act | U.S. Copyright Office. This is where subscription fee relationships first appeared for our digital devices. So, what this means is a piece of equipment worth millions of dollars that is purchased, the facility may not actually own it even after it is paid for, as the supplier will still own and control the software associated with its function. To the point, you may own the equipment, but you may not own the software that actually makes it work and if you think this is restricted to work equipment, think again, as new vehicles and all the technology they offer now have the same business approach.

No surprise, the impact on our industry has already begun as suppliers have core equipment that have adopted these same business principles. Government is aware of this growing problem and are working to try and untangle these monopolies through anti-trust laws, but it has not been easy as manufacturers and suppliers argue that government restrictions on their investments are unreasonable. Other possible cost increase impact areas may be insurance premiums to cover for the loss of these products as well as cyber security issues that may need to be navigated.

In conclusion, we have entered a brave new world that has started with a pebble being thrown in a pond. When a pebble is dropped into a pond, the waves move outward in all directions. This phenomenon is known as wave propagation as they move outwards in all directions impacting everything around it. In this case, the long-term impact to our industry of restricted technology access has yet to be discovered however, be assured the waves created by this change will result in challenges for all recreation stakeholders for years to come. This has put a whole new twist on the age-old warning of “buyer beware”.

Reference: How John Deere Robs Farmers Of $4 Billion A Year