McDonald’s is often criticized, apparently ice machines continually broken could soon be a thing of the past.

On October 25, the U.S. Copyright Office obtained a copyright exemption which gives restaurants like McDonald’s the “right to repair” broken machines by bypassing digital locks that prevent them from being repaired by anyone other than its manufacturer.

Golden Arches’ vanilla cones, sundaes and McFlurries are all made in Taylor Company machines, as they have been for nearly 70 years. In 1956, future McDonald’s CEO Ray Kroc entered into a handshake deal with Taylor to supply milkshake machines as McDonald’s exclusive supplier.

The Taylor company owns a copyright on its machines, and in the past this meant that if one of them broke down, only its repairers were legally authorized to repair itaccording to a 2021 Wired article. This is due to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)a 1998 law that criminalizes the manufacture or use of technologies, devices, or services that circumvent access control to copyrighted works.

In 2020, amid public outcry over broken machines, a developer created the “McBroken” map, a website that uses data from the McDonald’s app that shows where ice cream products are located “currently unavailable” to give real-time updates on which McDonald’s ice cream machines are working. As of October 29, McBroken reports that 14.72% of McDonald’s stores currently do not sell ice cream.

In July, McDonald’s USA told TODAY.com that sales data from recent years has shown that its ice cream machines operate about 95% of the time nationwide, depending on location.

In 2018, an app called Kych was created to help restaurant owners resolve machine issues without having to call in a technician but in 2021, McDonald’s sent notices to franchisees warning them that the technology could lead to worker injuries, according to the New York Times.

McDonald’s did not immediately respond to TODAY.com’s request for comment.

The exemption granted by the US Copyright Office took effect on October 28 and was jointly requested by a repair-focused website. iRepair and advocacy group Public knowledge. In 2023, iFixit documented its disassembly McDonald’s machines and said he spat out several “absurd, counterintuitive and seemingly random” error codes, but he couldn’t do anything to fix it.

U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and Federal Trade Commission filed comments in support of the petition.

Although the full application was not granted, commercial retail food preparation equipment was granted an exemption that will allow third parties to bypass digital locks on the machines for repair purposes.

Meredith Rose, senior policy advisor at Public Knowledge, said the Copyright Office’s decision would lead to a “long-overdue shake-up of the commercial food preparation industry.”

“There is nothing conceited in this victory”, Rose said in a statement. “An exemption for commercial retail food preparation equipment will spark a wave of third-party repair activity and allow businesses to better serve their customers. »

Rose says that despite the exemption, it is still illegal to sell or traffic digital hooks that allow people to repair these machines.

“Even though users and independent repair services have the official blessing of the federal government to go out and pick locks to repair these machines, they still cannot legally acquire the tools to do so,” Rose told TODAY.com by email. adding that in theory, each person who chooses a digital lock must create their own from scratch.

“Congress needs to legalize these tools so people can actually take advantage of these exemptions,” she said.

For its part, Taylor says it does not expect a change in existing maintenance practices or repairs of its equipment for customers, distributors or repairers.

“We are aware of recent information regarding a recent exemption ruling by the US Copyright Office and how it may change maintenance and repair practices for Taylor equipment,” a Taylor spokesperson told TODAY .com by email. “Our customers already have many choices and flexibility in how they can choose to maintain or repair Taylor equipment. »

The representative says Taylor is currently reviewing the details of the exemption and expects it to be consistent with its existing practices.

The company says it makes its parts available to machine owners or service technicians, even though they are not Taylor certified. The rep also says much of the maintenance on its equipment is done outside of the machine’s warranty period.

“We are all proud of the long life and reliability of our equipment, decades in some cases, and the way our customers appreciate the quality of our equipment,” says the spokesperson.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com