A year ago, we discussed the "tyrannical" situation of McDonald's ice cream machines in the United States, which prevented franchisees from perform their own repairs. At that time, iFixit and the organization Public Knowledge promised to seek an exemption from the Copyright Office to enable those actions and avoid falling into illegality. The good news is that said exemption was recently granted, and although it has some limitations, it is expected that the nightmare of broken machines across the country will be a little softer.
The world has become a very strange place. Farmers cannot repair their tractors. We don't own the games we buy. Printers without cartridges do not allow scanning. DRM on trains. And of course, ice cream machines whose repair is illegal. The McBroken portal fully exposes the chaos of McDonald's ice cream: As of this writing, 14.72 percent of all its machines in the United States are out of service, and the only way to make them work again is to pay a fortune to their manufacturer... but that is about to change.
"Freeing the McFlurry": McDonald's Machines Can Now Be Repaired by Third Parties
The U.S. Copyright Office accepted the exemption request made by iFixit and the organization Public Knowledge for "the diagnosis, maintenance, and repair" of equipment intended for food preparation "in retail space". If we recall, Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes illegal any attempt to bypass security systems that protect copyrighted works, even when there is no violation of that right. However, the Copyright Office enables a review window every three years to grant exemptions, which must then be approved by the Librarian of Congress.
Now, the original petition was broader, but the final text has some restrictions. First, it does not escape the natural three-year limit (it is not "permanent"), and second, the exemption does not cover industrial equipment. On the other hand, the exemption stands out due to the support of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), and the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration, under the Department of Commerce). Among the opponents are the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, Philips North America, and for some reason, the MPA and the RIAA.
Official announcements: iFixit and Public Knowledge
