NEW YORK 鈥 A broken machine, arguably one of life鈥檚 greatest nuisances, has finally been solved thanks to a court ruling.
McDonald鈥檚 franchises haven鈥檛 been able to fix the soft serve ice cream machines on their own because manufacturing company Taylor owns the copyright and exclusive rights to fix the machines 鈥 until now.
The granted a copyright exemption last week that gives restaurants the the machines by bypassing the digital locks that prevented them from being fixed. The inability to make timely fixes has been a bane of the customers’ existence, so much so, that there’s a called that tracks their availability.
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The McDonald's machines that make a McFlurry can now be easily more fixed.
The exemption, which goes into effect Monday, was requested by advocacy group Public Knowledge and repairs website iFixIt to allow third parties to circumvent digital locks on the machines for repairs. Although the full request wasn鈥檛 granted, commercial restaurant equipment received a narrow exemption.
Public Knowledge and iFixIt teamed together on the issue after the latter group broke apart an ice cream machine and 鈥渓ots of easily replaceable parts.鈥
The decision will lead to an 鈥渙verdue shake-up of the commercial food prep industry,鈥 according to Meredith Rose, senior policy counsel at Public Knowledge.
鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing vanilla about this victory; an exemption for retail-level commercial food preparation equipment will spark a flurry of third-party repair activity and enable businesses to better serve their customers,鈥 Rose said in a .
McDonald鈥檚 and Taylor didn鈥檛 immediately respond to CNN鈥檚 request for comment.
Broken ice cream machines have been such a blemish on McDonald鈥檚 reputation that even for it. And perhaps a fix can鈥檛 come quick enough: Nearly 15% of ice cream machines are broken as of Monday, according to .
