Victory Is Sweet: We Can Now Fix McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines
www.ifixit.com
The Copyright Office just handed down a big Right to Repair win: we can now legally repair commercial food preparation equipment, including McDonald’s machines.
  • @[email protected]English
    82•3 months ago

    Ah this bit is sad. The exception only covers bypassing DMCA protections to fix your own stuff not distributing the tooling for it.

    It is still a crime for iFixit to sell a tool to fix ice cream machines, and that’s a real shame. The ruling doesn’t change the underlying statute making it illegal to share or sell tools that bypass software locks. This leaves most of the repair work inaccessible to the average person, since the technical barriers remain high. Without these tools, this exemption is largely theoretical for many small businesses that don’t have in-house repair experts.

    • JohnEdwaEnglish
      15•3 months ago

      Illegal like sharing pirated media.
      It can’t be commercialised, but if you just “happen” to find the software somewhere, you are allowed to use it.

    • Semi-Hemi-LemmygodEnglish
      12•3 months ago

      They should do like the folks selling weed in DC, where they sell you a $200 cookie or sticker and give you a free ounce of weed with your purchase.

    • @asdfasdfasdfEnglish
      5•3 months ago

      I wonder if someone could invent a new open source machine of some sort along with a tool to fix that, and that tool just happens to also be able to fix the McDonald’s ice cream machines?

      • @[email protected]English
        5•3 months ago

        I mean, you could. The problem becomes “do you have more money and lawyers than McDonald’s” to keep pretending it has nothing to do with it in court.