Copyright Office exemption makes McDonald’s ice cream machines repairable - The Verge

Oct 26, 2024

By Emma Roth, a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO.

McDonald’s always-broken ice cream machines might finally get easier to fix. That’s because the US Copyright Office granted an exemption allowing third parties to diagnose and repair commercial equipment — including the ones that make your McFlurries.

Now, franchise owners will be able to break through the digital locks that have blocked them from repairing McDonald’s ice cream machines for years. According to the Copyright Office, the exemption will allow people to diagnose, perform maintenance, and repair “retail-level commercial food preparation equipment.” McDonald’s ice cream machines have become so notorious for breaking that someone even created a tool to track broken machines.

The decision is part of the Copyright Office’s final rule granting exemptions to Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This exemption-making process happens every three years and is supposed to ensure that the DMCA doesn’t negatively impact people trying to use copyrighted material.

If you’re wondering what copyright law has to do with McDonald’s ice cream machines, it’s because the law prevents anyone other than the manufacturer, Taylor, from bypassing its software locks. After performing a teardown of the machine last year, iFixit teamed up with Public Knowledge to file for an exemption, which the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice supported.

The Copyright Office’s decision doesn’t fully cover Public Knowledge and iFixit’s request for an exemption covering a wider range of commercial and industrial equipment, but at least it will address McDonald’s faulty ice cream machines. “There’s nothing vanilla about this victory; an exemption for retail-level commercial food preparation equipment will spark a flurry of third-party repair activity and enable businesses to better serve their customer,” Meredith Rose, Public Knowledge’s senior policy counsel, said in a press release.

The new exemption will officially go into effect on October 28th and might offer some peace of mind the next time you’re waiting to order a McFlurry at a McDonald’s drive-thru.

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