This is a nice win for self-repair hardware rights.
For context, see their old video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uCpY3tFTIA
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.
Long hard fight.
We take our Ws where we can get them.
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.
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.Corpos hate decentralized operations…
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?
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.
While there is feel good framing, write ups like this just reinforce what a dystopian hell hole we live in. It is depressing.
You’re not wrong, but I’d still encourage everyone to celebrate the small victories. If we wait for perfection it may never come.
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the merely good” is one (imo important) way to state it.
Yes, but framing is important. Saying “Oh look what our perfect corporate buddies over at Taylor let us do even though it’s their call” (a huge lie btw.) vs. saying “We finally got this victory, we can finally do part of what we should’ve never have been unable to do due to corporate greed, thank you Taylor for getting some sense, it seems like your scrooges still have some semblance of a soul left” is a big difference. As always, the truth is somewhere in between these two extremes. However, I’m inclned to lean towards the latter more than the former on the spectrum.
The only Victory I see in my medium term future is leaving the country. The US is fucked 5 ways to sunday and honestly I don’t see that recovering any time soon
McDonald’s franchisees being forced to buy one specific problematic ice cream machine is ducked up on it’s own. Let them choose what works.
World on fire and there are people worried about repairing ice cream machines of an evil corporation and consider it a “victory”. Depressing
That’s great, but I’m sure Taylor (ice cream machine manufacturer) will still void your warranty, and McDonald’s corporate will still tell you you’re required to have Taylor service it. There were blackboxed control bypass devices for these machines that let them run longer and self-clean better, but McDonald’s sent out a memo requiring all franchisees to remove them and only allow Taylor to work on those machines.
Sweet! Sub par soft-serve for everyone!
It’s not even cheap anymore :(
“You are allowed to repair the thing you own”
My ice cream came with bronzer smeared all over the cone last time I went there.
No extra charge?
This company sure has been making the rounds on the internet. I estimate maybe 1-2 years before they decide to cash in on their goodwill with some kind of monetary product
Ifixit? They’ve been selling tools for years, and they’re great.
I am honestly not sure if you’re joking or not
I’m not really. Who are these guys and why am I hearing about them on every social media outlet.
They’re a company whose sole aim is to make money. Right now they’re in the goodwill phase of building community trust, but what’s their endgame? Is this an emerging market they’re cornering.
I know these sound like sarcastic questions, but I’m genuinely wondering.
Ifixit has been a community driven repair site for over 20 years. It was indispensable for repairing apple laptops when they were still transitioning to Intel from PowerPC. I haven’t kept up with all the changes, but they sell tools and parts now. Even from a jaded perspective one can see the right to repair is in their best interest.
