1112 points by LorenDB 490 days ago | 308 comments on HN
| Moderate positive Editorial · v3.7· 2026-02-28 09:12:13
Summary Right to Repair & Technical Knowledge Champions
This news article champions consumer repair rights, celebrating iFixit's role in enabling repair of McDonald's ice cream machines. The content directly advocates for participation in scientific and technical knowledge (UDHR Article 27) through freely accessible repair guides, community education, and technical documentation. The editorial stance strongly aligns with human rights principles around property ownership, economic autonomy, and freedom of information. However, structural tension exists: the site's extensive behavioral tracking (Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, Diffuser) with default-on surveillance contradicts privacy rights (Article 12), revealing disconnect between advocacy values and operational practice.
TL;DW: there are some perverse incentives to keep them broken. Basically the owner operators are forced to use a particular brand by corporate. Corporate McDonalds has a deal with a particular ice cream machine company. That particular company is the only company owner operators are allowed to buy from, and the only company allowed to service the machines. And it's no skin off of McDonald's back for these machines to always be broken, the cost falls on the owner-operators.
The DMCA, though a mostly terrible law, actually doesn't prohibit any of what the ice cream machine people want to do, at least according to the CAFC.
Chamberlain v. Skylink, final court of appeals for the federal circuit opinion, page 39:
"Underlying Chamberlain’s argument on appeal that it has not granted such authorization lies the necessary assumption that Chamberlain is entitled to prohibit legitimate purchasers of its embedded software from “accessing” the software by using it.
Such an entitlement, however, would go far beyond the idea that the DMCA allows copyright owner to prohibit “fair uses . . . as well as foul.” Reimerdes, 111 F. Supp. 2d at 304.
Chamberlain’s proposed construction would allow copyright owners to prohibit exclusively fair uses even in the absence of any feared foul use.
It would therefore allow any copyright owner, through a combination of contractual terms and technological measures, to repeal the fair use doctrine with respect to an individual copyrighted work—or even selected copies of that copyrighted work. Again, this implication contradicts § 1201(c)(1) directly. Copyright law itself authorizes the public to make certain uses of copyrighted materials. Consumers who purchase a product containing a copy of embedded software have the inherent legal right to use that copy of the software. What the law authorizes, Chamberlain cannot revoke." (Emphasis mine)
I've heard plenty of stories about the MCD ice cream machines, but it doesn't add up for me. Can someone who has more insight shed some light into this?
- Are the machines listed as "broken" on https://mcbroken.com/ actually broken? Or is that more of a meme, with many just undergoing routine cleaning, etc.?
- Why does this seemingly happen only in US? In European McDonald's it's pretty much unheard of.
- Why would McDonald's Corp. be happy with the status quo? Is it some kind of tactic to squeeze more revenue from the franchises? If so, why not address it in the franchise agreement and just let restaurants sell more ice cream?
Nice, the politicians were able to get some brownie points on a hot button issue without actually doing anything! Good for them, I bet they feel proud, they deserve some of the ice cream they so valiantly saved.
> Meanwhile, Canada is in the final stages of considering legislation that would fix the Canadian version of the DMCA, a bill called C-244 that is in its third reading in the Senate and expected to move before the end of the month. If Canada legalized circumventing technological protection measures for the purposes of repair, we might just have to head north to find the tools we need to do repairs.
That's good news, I didn't know about that bill. It looks like it was voted for unanimously in parliament. It's nice when you hear about our government doing something good for once.
Does anyone else thinks this is actually a great incidental marketing campaign for McDonald's? Not only the free reach but also tons of people discussing the "problems" with a big co and how to "fix" them as they are an essential part of society, and this case ice-creams.
Sure we focus on the big brain things like copyright, business malpractice and MBA lore but with it comes McDonald's embedded.
I know this might sound a bit snobby, but just don't play the game, ignore them. If there is criminal activity let who gets paid deal with it, otherwise just move on and stop "fixing" problems that are not of your concern, let alone "fixing" them for free.
> Unfortunately, the exemption allowing circumvention of digital locks on video games for accessibility purposes (introduced in 2021) was not renewed. No petition for renewal was submitted, and as a result, individuals with disabilities who need alternative input methods to play video games are left out.
It took this long to establish a Right to Repair for Ice Cream Machines... So, where shall we set the over:under for number of years til regain a Right to Repair our own cars?
As per the US Code, title § 1201(D) "noninfringing uses" including but not limited to non-profit or archival purposes aren't a circumvention of the technological measure. No need to skirt DMCA if the fair use doctrine is in place.
iFixit is a strange entity. Their website, repair kits, and tutorials are all excellent. The amount of success they've had in championing right to repair initiatives in legal arenas is commendable. But it's not so great that the two are intertwined. It seems inevitable that conflicts of interests will arise between their exclusive deals with manufacturers, business selling repair kits, and increasing influence in the legal system.
The biggest reason I have read for why machines do not work,
or are not being used is due to lack of maintenance, and
employees who are trained to do so.
(and people quit all the time).
Having worked at a fast food join (not McDonalds) much earlier
in my life, any lacking maintenance and proper cleaning, especially
if there has been a power outage will turn the the machine into a
rapid incubator for bacteria that will make you ill.
Since shifts change and not everyone keeps on the machine,
a power outrage can quickly be lost to the workers.
Getting angry if an employee tells you the machine is broken
and demanding ice-cream is an exceedingly bad idea.
Take that as a blessing. The employee may have saved you from
running to the bathroom a lot.
I personally stay away from softicecream entirely.
But if you must, try to find a place where a lot of
people are buying so the machine is in frequent use.
That doesn't mean its safe but it makes it a lot
more likely.
Of course not being used frequently is not an automatic
reason for the machine to be in incubator mode, it may
will be well cared for, well cleaned, great maintenance.
Does McD's still use these machines today? It seems like this has been going on for decades, more than long enough that pretty much everyone seems to know about it. I would have guessed that by now McD's would want to move on to a new setup that did not cause them such consistent negative PR and leave a trail of unhappy customers.
Re: specific tools staying outlawed even after this win:
What about offering a tool for some legit purpose, but it just happens to be the right tool that can be used to repair the protected item?
Implicit here is the assumption that (a) when evaluating many franchises McD is still attractive for new owner operators despite the obvious flaw, or (b) switching costs are high for existing McD owner operator victims, and the issue wasn't known or believed to be this bad when they started.
I don't understand the last sentence. If the machines are frequently broken, that damages the Macdonald's brand in the consumer's eyes. And if the franchisee's are paying unnecessary costs, making a Macdonald's franchise less lucrative for the owner-operator, that will lead to fewer franchises renewals and new franchises in the future.
I think they're going to stop selling ice cream period as a company. If it was important to their bottom line McDonalds would have done something as a collective rather than having individuals enter this fight for back-channel repair options.
At some point they'll probably have their main contracts expire and stop dealing with the mess altogether.
The US Copyright Office isn't elected, and the woman running it was appointed by a non-political appointee herself.
I have a pretty negative view of politics, too, but it doesn't mean we can't be happy when something good happens – no matter how small. The government doesn't pay well, and while we know the names of a dozen or so shitty self-serving jerks in Congress, most people in the government are genuine people doing it to help others.
The short version is that the machines' sensors are extremely picky (because the stuff that goes into soft serve is just begging for massive bacterial growth if not handled correctly), and McDonald's corporate requires (I'm pretty sure by franchisee contract, not just by the copyright restrictions the article is about) that their specific chosen vendor handles it, even for minor issues.
A lot of people like to treat this as a conspiracy, but I think it's much more likely it's the corporate people being paranoid about local franchisees overriding the machines, and that leading to listeria outbreaks happening in the only non-sealed food item that isn't heated to safe temperatures shortly before it's handed off to customers.
I don't know about the contrast with Europe, but it might just be geographical size causing time delays for individual techs showing up. McDonald's franchisees are everywhere, and the U.S. is gigantic.
In UK McDo often have broken ice-cream machines too, at least where I've been. It seems to be higher incidence than other fastfood outlets (Burger King, KFC), but that might be observer bias.
I just figure margins must be low on their ice-creams, so when it's broken they sell more fountain drinks and make more money than they would if the ice-cream machine was fixed.
Most importantly, McDonalds has a strong incentive to avoid headlines like "37 people hospitalized after shit-bacteria in improperly maintained ice cream machine", which is why the machines self-monitor and shut down at the slightest excursion from some specified norm.
And McD wants the machines maintained by the official technician, because they'd rather screw their franchisees a bit than risk someone ripping out the offending sensor.
IMO, the perverse incentives come on top of this (Taylor has no motivation to make the machines more transparent since they profit from the call-outs, McD either doesn't care or may even prefer this since it could reduce the risk of "creative" solutions like an employee holding an ice cube next to a sensor), but the "McD would rather have 50% of the ice cream machines 'broken' than have a single one serve E.Coli to its customers" is what kicked this whole thing off.
Not if they don't now fix their machines, no. Then it's just "despite now being legal, McDonalds still refuses to fix their machine". Because remember: McDonalds is make of so much money that they could have trivially forced this though literal decades ago if they'd actually cared. Which they didn't. They could have even flat out bought the company that makes their machines. They didn't.
Either the McDonalds by me is fairly lucky or this is far less common than the meme makes it out to be.
It doesn't seem like good marketing - I hadn't had it in years but wanted to try a promo mcflurry a couple years ago, and wasn't expecting it to work, which make me wonder if I shouldn't even bother going. That's the opposite of what they'd want.
But then I went, and have gone probably a couple dozen times since then in two or three years, and it's never been out of order. Obviously I'm not going every day, but across that many visits I'd be likely to catch one if the rate of failure was THAT high.
What the hacker community should be lobbying for, everywhere is the complete repeal of these anticircumvention laws. DRM does not meaningfully protect against piracy, and most of the things it does protect against are otherwise-legal
> It's nice when you hear about our government doing something good for once.
Critically, what the government is doing here is reducing its own authority with regard to information, the internet, and ultimately at some level, thought. Sharing methods for basic home and business improvements, including repairs of machinery, is one of the most fundamental functions of society.
It's rare (but of course not unheard of by any stretch) that the governments of the largest nation states do anything _proactive_ that is helpful to society, but in many cases when they choose to reduce their own capabilities (even for the wrong reasons), it seems more forward-looking.
I don't see it. No single manufacturer deal they make will be worth enough to them to change their strategy or values. They also know from experience that companies withdraw from such agreements or deals without warning, so they can never rely on them
> Not only the free reach but also tons of people discussing the "problems" with a big co and how to "fix" them as they are an essential part of society, and this case ice-creams.
It is an example of a general problem. I very much doubt the number of people discussing this are a significant proportion of McDonald's market.
The actual ruling was an exemption for "commercial food preparation equipment", so it applies to all machines in all restaurants in the US.
> If there is criminal activity let who gets paid deal with it, otherwise just move on and stop "fixing" problems that are not of your concern,
This is not about criminal activity, it is about not making criminals out of people who fix their own property.
Fixing the public interest is everyone's concern. This ruling would not have happened if people hd not campaigned for it.
Except Dairy Queen, Wendy’s, and McDonald’s outside of the U.S. don’t have this problem.
Somehow I doubt DQ employees are paid better or are better trained or more diligent about regular maintenance. The difference is they don’t have a machine designed to require expensive maintenance visits with a DRM lockout to retard attempts to maintain it by normal restaurant/HVAC maintenance contractors.
Part of the issue as I understand it, is that the machine is fairly opaque as to why some failures occur can appear somewhat "flaky" as a result. When this occurs during a cleaning cycle, the whole cycle is void and a new 4 hour cycle must be run.
If the machine was clear about communicating the issue, it would be fine. It's not and can require a technician to come out with a tool to both read the machine status in detail and tweak the machine in the necessary ways to stop it being flaky.
This would all be fine except for the fact that
1. Only technicians from the manufacturer are allowed to be used.
2. Those technicians are unreasonable expensive.
3. The company could make the machines easier to diagnose and repair, but don't because repair calls are lucrative
4. Third parties can, and have, made tools that do make the machines easier to diagnose and repair without the need for a technician, but cant legally sell these solutions because it involves circumventing a digital lock (DMCA violation)
5. McD corporate has an agreement with the manufacturer to maintain this status quo in return for a kickback
> any lacking maintenance and proper cleaning, especially if there has been a power outage will turn the the machine into a rapid incubator for bacteria that will make you ill.
Yes, the correct frame of reference here is “how can we scale ice cream delivery to millions a day while keeping everyone healthy?” At this scale a single failure can make a lot of people very sick in a very short amount of time. Under these conditions maintenance needs to be extremely rigorous and performed by qualified people.
“Right to repair” says that equipment owners can’t be stopped from performing repairs if they want to. They’ll still be on the hook for demonstrating that they were qualified to make the repairs, so I predict this will do little to improved McDonalds ice cream availability: They’ll still need to wait for the qualified technician.
McDonalds owns the company that makes and fixes these machines, and franchise owners foot the bill. It's a way of taking more money from franchise owners.
Site implements Google Tag Manager, Facebook pixel, and third-party analytics (Diffuser) with consent-gating. Consent mechanism is present but tracking occurs unless explicitly opted out, shifting burden to user.
Terms of Service
—
No ToS content visible in provided page data.
Accessibility
+0.10
Article 2
Page includes skip-to-content link for keyboard navigation and proper heading hierarchy in CSS, indicating accessibility awareness.
Mission
+0.25
Article 27
iFixit's core mission emphasizes repair rights and access to repair documentation, directly aligned with economic and consumer rights.
Editorial Code
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No editorial code visible in provided page data.
Ownership
—
Ownership structure not evident from page code provided.
Access Model
+0.15
Article 19 Article 27
iFixit provides free access to repair guides and information, reducing barriers to knowledge and consumer information.
Ad/Tracking
-0.10
Article 12
Multiple advertising and behavioral tracking pixels present (GTM, Facebook Pixel, Diffuser). Ad personalization and user data collection enabled by default.
+0.70
Article 26Education
High Advocacy Framing Practice
Structural
+0.70
Context Modifier
ND
SETL
-0.19
Guides explicitly frame learning ('Learn how to fix'), Answers Forum enables peer education, FixBot provides AI-assisted learning.
Repair Guides ('Learn how to fix just about anything'), Answers Forum (peer knowledge sharing), and Teardowns (technical documentation) create comprehensive open information infrastructure.
+0.55
Article 2Non-Discrimination
High Advocacy Framing Practice
Structural
+0.55
Context Modifier
ND
SETL
-0.17
Multilingual support (10+ languages visible in header), free guides without registration, and open community forum implement non-discriminatory access.
+0.50
Article 1Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood
High Advocacy Framing
Structural
+0.50
Context Modifier
ND
SETL
+0.17
Free access model and multilingual navigation structure support equal participation regardless of economic status.
+0.50
Article 17Property
High Advocacy Framing Coverage
Structural
+0.50
Context Modifier
ND
SETL
+0.31
Free repair guides and documentation enable owners to maintain property without surrendering control to manufacturers.
+0.50
Article 22Social Security
High Advocacy Framing
Structural
+0.50
Context Modifier
ND
SETL
+0.24
Free guides and affordable parts (lifetime guarantee mentioned) reduce economic barriers to equipment maintenance.
+0.45
PreamblePreamble
High Advocacy Framing
Structural
+0.45
Context Modifier
ND
SETL
+0.36
Site provides free repair guides and open information infrastructure, though privacy concerns via tracking tension undermine dignity protection.
+0.45
Article 29Duties to Community
Medium Advocacy Framing
Structural
+0.45
Context Modifier
ND
SETL
0.00
Community section structures repair as shared responsibility: 'Help teach people to make their stuff work again'
+0.40
Article 28Social & International Order
Medium Advocacy
Structural
+0.40
Context Modifier
ND
SETL
0.00
Site infrastructure contributes to establishing technology access as social right within broader order.
+0.40
Article 30No Destruction of Rights
High Advocacy
Structural
+0.40
Context Modifier
ND
SETL
+0.22
Right-to-Repair advocacy section structurally defends repair rights against potential restrictions or elimination.
+0.30
Article 21Political Participation
Medium Advocacy
Structural
+0.30
Context Modifier
ND
SETL
+0.13
Dedicated Right-to-Repair navigation section with description: 'Learn about the Right to Repair movement and how to be an advocate' structures participation pathways.
-0.55
Article 12Privacy
High
Structural
-0.55
Context Modifier
ND
SETL
+0.44
Site embeds Google Tag Manager (GTM-59NVBFN), Facebook Pixel, and Diffuser analytics. ConsentBanner shows needsConsent=false, indicating tracking operates by default without explicit user opt-in.
ND
Article 3Life, Liberty, Security
ND
ND
Article 4No Slavery
ND
ND
Article 5No Torture
ND
ND
Article 6Legal Personhood
ND
ND
Article 7Equality Before Law
ND
ND
Article 8Right to Remedy
Low Advocacy
ND
ND
Article 9No Arbitrary Detention
ND
ND
Article 10Fair Hearing
ND
ND
Article 11Presumption of Innocence
ND
ND
Article 13Freedom of Movement
ND
ND
Article 14Asylum
ND
ND
Article 15Nationality
ND
ND
Article 16Marriage & Family
ND
ND
Article 18Freedom of Thought
ND
ND
Article 20Assembly & Association
ND
ND
Article 23Work & Equal Pay
Low Advocacy
ND
ND
Article 24Rest & Leisure
ND
ND
Article 25Standard of Living
ND
Supplementary Signals
Epistemic Quality
0.62medium claims
Sources
0.7
Evidence
0.6
Uncertainty
0.6
Purpose
0.8
Propaganda Flags
1techniques detected
flag waving
Title uses celebratory framing: 'Victory Is Sweet' positions repair access as patriotic/positive human achievement
Solution Orientation
0.82solution oriented
Reader Agency
0.7
Emotional Tone
celebratory
Valence
+0.8
Arousal
0.7
Dominance
0.7
Stakeholder Voice
0.452 perspectives
Speaks: institutionindividuals
About: corporation
Temporal Framing
presentimmediate
Geographic Scope
national
United States
Complexity
accessiblelow jargonnone
Transparency
0.25
✗ Author
Audit Trail
1 entries
2026-02-28 09:12
eval
Evaluated by claude-haiku-4-5-20251001: +0.48 (Moderate positive)
build d1f8d9e+mpqz · deployed 2026-02-28 11:28 UTC · evaluated 2026-02-28 11:41:14 UTC
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