A new copyright rule lets McDonald's fix its own broken ice cream machines

A new copyright rule lets McDonald's fix its own broken ice cream machines toggle caption Gene J. Puskar/AP The soft-serve machines at McDonald's restaurants are so often out of order that their reliable unreliability have long been the butt of jokes, memes — and now even a rallying cry in this year’s presidential race. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which protects the code embedded in the ice cream machines, made it illegal for third parties, like McDonald’s employees and franchisee owners, to break the digital locks installed by manufacturers. Sponsor Message The new rule, which went into effect on Monday, allows outside vendors to fix “retail-level commercial food preparation equipment.” That includes McDonald’s ice cream machines, as 404 media journalist Jason Koebler explained to NPR’s Weekend Edition. Two days before the law went into effect, former President Donald Trump posted a photograph on X of him at a McDonald’s drive-thru, with a photoshopped President Biden holding an ice cream cone, alongside a promise: "WHEN I’M PRESIDENT THE MCDONALD’S ICE CREAM MACHINES WILL WORK GREAT AGAIN!” It's possible the Biden administration beat him to it.