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https://qz.com/mcdonalds-broken-ice-cream-machines-federal-regulators-1851339089
Federal regulators want to fix McDonald's broken ice cream machines, and they're asking to expand right-to-repair laws to address the issue. In a letter to the U.S. Copyright Office on Thursday, regulators asked for commercial soft-serve machines to be exempt from current laws making them difficult to repair. The laws also make it more difficult for you to get a McFlurry.
"In the Agencies' view, renewing and expanding repair-related exemptions would promote competition in markets for replacement parts, repair, and maintenance services," said the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission in a joint letter.
The McDonald's broken ice cream machines have found themselves at the center of the right-to-repair movement. The reason McDonald's ice cream machines are always down is because of copyright law. Only technicians licensed by the company that made the device are allowed to touch the machines, and they charge over $300 for a 15-minute servicing, according to the letter. The DOJ and the FTC identified commercial soft-serve machines as one of four device categories that would benefit from an easing of copyright laws.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by anubi on Thursday July 04 2024, @08:02AM (2 children)
This was my main concern about Congress passing all this patent and copyright law. That is that it would be used to enforce planned obsolescence, in practice to use legal means to enforce everyone into the subscription model by simply having copyrighted technology time itself out.
Enforced monopoly.
As far as I am concerned, if I bought it, and it breaks, I feel I have the right to do anything I want to my purchase in order to make it work again...and that includes giving and getting information and replacement parts from whatever means to effect bringing my purchase back up to its original functionality.
While I don't feel they are liable to me beyond their warranty, I also feel that if I paid in full for a durable, I should be able to maintain it indefinitely.
Businesses like to work in an environment where once I have made a purchase, I no longer have any control whatsoever of the monies I tendered as payment for my purchase. I expect the same consideration on my side, that is they also surrender any control over any goods they exchanged to me for my payment.
I'd like to see something like this in the Uniform Commercial Code...
"Should any rightsholder exercise copyright or patent violation against another party for making replacement parts, the rightsholder agrees to make the replacement part available at the price and delivery existing when the assembly the part fits was released.".
What I am asking for is to keep copyright/patent law from weaponizing enforced retirement of otherwise usable goods to our landfills, mandating consumers to purchase again to meet their need.
If the company that made it won't support it, then hold harmless anyone who wants to fill that support need to do so.
It seems our legislators pass all sorts of law to meddle in our affairs in the name of "green". Now, what I have outlined will result in significant reduction of toxic electronic waste if implemented properly.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Thursday July 04 2024, @02:46PM (1 child)
You can do that. Franchise op, probably not.
The problem as I understand it is if you sign a contract with corporate that you'll be a good little franchise operator and run your restaurant per corporate's rules, and their rules are based on corporate getting a kickback on a nationwide service contract that charges over $1000/hr repair fees to franchise operators, you're essentially voluntarily being taxed by corporate.
It would be like if corporate declared you can only be a franchise operator if you buy a VERY specific model of McToilet paper from a McCompany that overcharges the franchise operator by $2 and kicks back $1 to corporate on each roll of McTP, essentially it's a use tax.
Now if "everyone's making tons of money" nobody cares. But when the parking lots are empty, like now, suddenly the folks who signed the franchise contract are in rebellion, etc.
The irony is corporate has a budget to meet and if they need $1 they'll get $1 some other way; it seems fair to "tax" their operators based on use because the more ice cream you sell the more you'll need to repair the machines, but if no longer legally permitted its not like they'll crash the budget by $1, they'll just crank up the other fees by $1. As usual the only people who will make money are the lawyers.
Also the McD business model has changed over the years from selling mid to low grade "food adjacent products" to being an employment scheme. So they mainly make money by "employing" unemployables in exchange for government tax dollar kickbacks. Thats why you see McD out there with full staff doing nothing and empty parking lots but it "seems like" a real business. They don't need a working ice cream machine to collect govt funds, so they don't repair them, leading to the legacy business model customers getting weird about this restaurant refusing to sell them "food". But being a restaurant is not their business model any more its more like a welfare day-program.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday July 05 2024, @07:45AM
Thanks for that.
Yeh, franchisees have to agree to onerous T&C too.
I guess in the name of uniformity of operations...like all the coke machines and flavors available the same no matter which franchise one visits...
But fixing the ice cream machine sounds too much like a routine maintenance issue, like plumbing or electrical maintenance usually done by local tradesmen.
I am considering a local pizza parlor, where I met the owner and discovered the old mechanical Cramer time switch on his dough mixer was driving him nuts...by forcing him to stand for 15 minutes holding the Start button in. I recognized the circuit, he had an egg-timer, and I popped the cover of his old Hobart mixer and did a slight wiring change that took the time switch out of the run circuit. So it was now purely manual with latching start and stop buttons. And had Grainger get me another switch, which I swapped back in the next week.
That guy made me a pizza every time I came in until he sold the place. I'd pay the lunch price but he would fix me up with something that I don't think I could even buy anything like it anywhere. When he told me how much the cost was for factory support for his 50 year old machine, I was floored. Thousands of dollars? And change the control panel? Over a broken mainspring?
I figured the McD franchisee would have done the same with a local fix it guy.
When the ice cream machine at our local HomeTown Buffet went on the fritz, I asked about it, only to discover yet another patron was familiar with the machine and had already fixed it. Loose drive belt. So the motor pulley just spun against the belt, heating it up so it smoked, and made one hellacious racket in the process. Then we all had ice cream the next time we came in, as the machine has been off for several days, needed to be cleaned, then the new ice cream needed a couple of hours to come to the correct temperature and consistency.
I like these small towns where we all know each other and co-operate to keep our stuff running. However the old ways are dying out, replaced by terms, conditions, contracts, and terribly big bills.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]