https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/25/24279371/mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines-right-to-repair-copyright
Finally, a copyright exemption we can all get behind. A copyright exemption was made for McDonald’s biggest mistake in recorded history (okay, I mean, other than their fake meat, the french fry non-vegan grease debacle, and the fact that most of their food tastes like Styrofoam). The back story: McDonald’s ice cream makers are all from a single company that created a super secret hidden code to access the ice cream machine’s system to fix it. And only the manufacturer had the code. And then sued for anyone else using the code to fix the machines … which constantly broke and whose manufacturer charged a ton to fix. Sounds like a grift to us.
An exemption was finally issued for a big middle finger to go out to the shady manufacturer (and, truthfully, the idiots at McDonald’s for not switching machines at some point … or manufacturing their own). This all came from a tear down from the team at iFixit and a filing for exemption. Taylor (the manufacturer) makes 25% of their profits from technician calls to fix these machines. Seriously.
Here’s a great video explainer from iFixIt: https://youtu.be/2uCpY3tFTIA
Anyway, if you want to buy your own McDonald’s soft serve machine, you now can, and you can repair it yourself, FINALLY. Who’s buying one and how close are you to me? I want a cone.
PS As always, you’re welcome for a not at all creepy AI generated image of “McDonald’s soft serve machine”. Nothing bizarre here. Not at all. A spoon. Multiple cones. The eyes of each person being different. Yup, that’s reality.
