McDonald's lands a right to repair victory

Oct 28, 2024

Illustration: Francis Scialabba, Photos: Getty Images

• less than 3 min read

Morning Brew delivers quick and insightful updates about the business world every day of the week from Wall St. to Silicon Valley.

Justice is a dish best soft-served cold.

Thanks to a ruling by the US Copyright Office on Friday, you’re less likely to encounter a broken McFlurry machine starting today. The government agency exempted the machines from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), allowing restaurants to hire a third party to fix commercial equipment with digital locks—including the perpetually busted ice cream machines at McDonald’s.

What does ice cream have to do with copyright law? Great question.

An independent company named Kytch created a device to aid in maintenance back in 2020, but Taylor warned McDonald’s franchises to stop using them. The legal dispute between Taylor and Kytch is ongoing, as is the work of McBroken, a website that tracks broken ice cream machines (nearly 15% are down nationally).

Who are the heroes? The petition was filed jointly by iFixit and the nonprofit Public Knowledge, which have earned similar victories for Xboxes, tractors, and smartphones.

The ruling also applies to medical equipment. You’ve probably never associated a McFlurry machine with a ventilator, but they both have those digital locks in common. So, not only can third-party repair services now legally fix that life-saving machine that keeps you going when you need it most, they can also fix ventilators.—DL

Morning Brew delivers quick and insightful updates about the business world every day of the week from Wall St. to Silicon Valley.