By Jennifer Bamberg for Investigate Midwest.Broadcast version by Terri Dee for Illinois News Connection reporting for the Investigate Midwest-Public News Service Collaboration During the 2023 harvest season, one of Jake Lieb’s tractors quit working. A week later, his combine stopped working, too. Both were new — and he was locked out from making any repairs himself because of software restrictions embedded in the machines. Instead, a technician from John Deere was dispatched to diagnose and repair the problems. .