US Copyright Office Says You Can Fix McDonald's Ice Cream Machines — But Not Stream Old Games

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemptions issued this month by the United States Copyright Office might finally mean an end to the ever-broken ice cream machines at McDonald's restaurants throughout the US — but the Office gives with one hand and takes away with the other as it rejects exemptions for streaming out-of-print games direct to your browser.

"Every three years, the Librarian of Congress, upon the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, is authorized to adopt temporary exemptions, with respect to certain classes of copyrighted works, to remain in effect for the ensuing three‐year period," the US Copyright Office explains in its ninth triennial proceedings for Section 1201 rulemaking. "Congress established this rulemaking as a 'fail‐safe mechanism' to ensure that the prohibition on circumvention would not adversely affect the public's ability to make lawful uses of copyrighted works, including activities protected by the fair use doctrine."

That three-year period is up this week, and the latest recommendations have been issued — including an explicit exemption for food preparation equipment, breaking vendors' stranglehold on the increasingly-technological market. "We’ve been fighting for years to challenge the digital locks that manufacturers like Taylor (which makes McDonald's ice cream machines) use to keep repair information out of reach, forcing expensive service calls for simple fixes," says iFixit's Elizabeth Chamberlain of the company's work lobbying for exactly this exemption.

"But while this is a significant step forward, the battle is far from over. Any McDonald’s franchisee can hack their own machine, but if you want to share what you found with your friends or sell a tool to help diagnose and fix your machine, you’re out of luck. Plus, the ruling didn’t go nearly far enough in granting broader exemptions for repairing other commercial or industrial equipment. Trust us, we’re not stopping there. This is a big win — and we'll be celebrating with ice cream! — but copyright law still needs fixing before we’re free to fix everything we own."

Much less of a win is the modification of an exemption that allowed libraries, like the Internet Archive, to provide access to preserved out-of-print video games through streaming to a user's browser. The language in this exemption has been considerably modified, with one apparent purpose: to ensure nobody's having fun — by making such software available only for a limited time and to users whose interest is in "scholarship, teaching, or research," rather than for recreational purposes.

"Opponents [to the exemption] contended that […] proponents' proposed access restrictions are insufficient and potentially allow the public to engage in recreational play," the recommendations explain, "and that granting an exemption would cause 'substantial harm to the legitimate market for games'" — despite the exemption as-proposed applying only to games software that is unavailable in any other way, having been long out of print and in many cases written for obsolete computers or operating systems.

The full recommendations are available as a PDF download from the US Copyright Office, and include sections on non-commercial videos, massively open online courses (MOOCs), generative artificial intelligence (AI) research, and vehicle operational data.