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[US] McDonald’s busted ice cream machines can now be fixed — legally (www.theverge.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/news

20 comments fedilink hide all child comments

US Copyright Office granted an exemption allowing third parties to diagnose and repair commercial equipment — including the ones that make your McFlurries.

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.

Worth nothing that DMCA exceptions are reviewed on the same 3 year cycle and are frequently revoked. So if you're a McD ice cream fan, enjoy it while you can.

top 20 comments

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[–] ObviouslyNotBanana 42 points 3 weeks ago

Absolutely deranged headline in a whacky world.

Great to hear though.

[–] BombOmOm 37 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Another small win for Right to Repair. While this specific instance isn't far-reaching, it is part of an overall trend that is increasingly favoring the consumer and small businesses.

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds 10 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, as an electrician it's nice to see. Means more work for us and happier customers for them.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Wasn't there a guy with a tool to diagnose and fix before this? Is this win only going through because ifixit is another corpo wanting some of the money?

[–] EmpathicVagrant 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The machines were exposed as designed to break specifically so they had to be paid to fix them all.

Then someone sued someone ten years ago And now they can legally fix them in house.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

I'm just hoping the original guy gets somerjing from all this.

[–] Supervisor194 15 points 3 weeks ago

There's a great video about this whole stupid ordeal. If you haven't seen it, check it out.

[–] Keeponstalin 6 points 3 weeks ago

That's cool

Still boycotting due to their support of Israel

https://www.bdsmovement.net/act-now-against-these-companies-profiting-from-genocide

[+] [email protected] -10 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

It won't make any difference as it is unlikely any manager would allow their people to touch machines like this. No sane insurance company would allow other than trained techs to work on such machines.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Managers were already doing it until the company that makes the machine invoked the DMCA to stop them.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

A very small number. Most were not. Managers typically don't have the skills (some think they do but don't) - even if they do, running a restaurants needs a lot of effort and spending time fixing a machine is not a good use of your time if you can get someone else to do it (that if is big!)

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Managers at McDonald's don't really make a lot of money. Calling out for a tech is much more expensive and likely loses a good amount of revenue for the location.

[–] MrMxyztplk 1 points 3 weeks ago

What are the actual numbers out of curiosity.

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds 9 points 3 weeks ago

It's not their workers who'll be fixing it, it'll be their regional handyman or a subcontractor like me.

McDonald's in particular has a well-established maintenance infrastructure

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Doesn't this open up the number of techs that they can get in which makes them cheaper? Then you are more likely to get a tech who tells you exactly what is being done wrong that causes it to stop working. If I recall correctly, it is often something done incorrectly during the cleaning process.