Jokes about McDonald’s seemingly oft-broken ice cream machines are a dime a dozen.
In fact, the phenomenon is so common that there’s even an app dedicated to tracking ice cream outages at local McDonald’s stores.
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But these jokes might not be around for much longer.
Last week, the U.S. Copyright Office granted a copyright exemption that now provides restaurants like McDonald’s a “right to repair” broken machines by getting around the digital locks that would otherwise keep the machines from being fixed by anyone but the manufacturer.
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According to TODAY.com, McDonald’s ice cream products have been made using Taylor Company machines for nearly 70 years, and due to Taylor holding copyright on its machines, only its repair workers were legally allowed to fix broken ones.
However, the new exemption kicked in on Monday thanks to a joint petition by repair website iFixIt and advocacy group Public Knowledge, Today.com reports. As a result, retail commercial food prep equipment now allows third parties to bypass digital locks when repairing broken machines.
Senior Policy Counsel Meredith Rose with Public Knowledge said the following in a statement after the decision:
“Today’s recommendations are a victory for everyone: franchise owners, independent repair shops, and anyone who’s had to bribe their kids with a chilly treat on lengthy road trips. It’s been a long and rocky road to secure a right to repair, and while there are plenty of dips and twists ahead, today’s decision from the Copyright Office will lead to an overdue shake-up of the commercial food prep industry. 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 customers.
While we are disappointed that the Register recommended a narrower exemption than we had proposed, this does not soften our enthusiasm. We will continue to chip away at half-baked laws blocking the right to repair, sprinkling consumer victories as we go. Today’s win may not be parfait, but it’s still pretty sweet.”
Senior Policy Counsel Meredith Rose, Public Knowledge
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