But getting a Section 1201 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemption will only solve half the problem. “That’s why we’re also asking Congress to reintroduce the Freedom to Repair Act, which would make repair tools legal, too, permanently exempting all repair activities from Section 1201 of the DMCA,” says iFixit. Assuming iFixit succeeds, the company proposes making a machine that would decipher error codes and allow a regular technician to fix those machines. That’s a big assumption.
A company named Kytch developed a namesake device built atop a Raspberry Pi that could decipher those error codes. It was well-received until McDonald’s told franchise owners to stop using it, and it was soon followed by a lawsuit courtesy of Taylor. What’s the argument behind the lawsuit, aside from the usual copyright schtick? Taylor says Kytch’s tool posed safety hazards.
iFixit has posted a teardown video of an ice cream machine showing that these machines are fairly easy to fix, but the only hassle is the copyright laws blocking independent repairs. “Access to software tools and manuals for repair shouldn’t be a high-stakes game of digital cat-and-mouse,” writes iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens at Fast Company. The broken McDonald’s ice cream machines situation is a chilling reminder that we don’t really own the hardware we buy because their repairs are locked behind copyright-protected software. Some progress has materialized, and even a lobbying powerhouse like Apple has budged. The McDonald’s saga could be the next avenue for fair industrial repair reforms.
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