Posted on 11/04/2024 8:58:00 AM PST by BenLurkin
Before this week, most of the McDonald's ice cream makers could only be fixed through the machine’s manufacturer. 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.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Makes complete sense to me.
Copyright should not mean no right to repair your own equipment.
Smells like BS.
They Hacked McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines—and Started a Cold War
Secret codes. Legal threats. Betrayal. How one couple built a device to fix McDonald’s notoriously broken soft-serve machines—and how the fast-food giant froze them out.
https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-makers-started-cold-war/
There is a website that lists every McDonald’s shake machine status, whether or not it is working
NOW-—THEY need to apply it to JOHN DEERE TRACTORS & OTHER EAUIPMENT
That’s the problem with too many things these days. There is code involved. For most things, no code needs to be involved.
John Deere used to be the worst offender in keeping folks from servicing their own equipment. A huge combine breaks down? No problem. Just bring it back to the dealer (who may be hundreds of miles away) and drop it off for a quick change-out of the broken part and updating the software to recognize the new part. Instead of getting the part shipped to you to bolt into place.
Free market folks will flame me for this, but I do support ‘Right to Repair’ legislation. I’m a main street conservative, not a Wall Street conservative.
Ping!...............
There’s a long-running joke among hackers (and you’ll see it a lot if you read Hackaday). “You could have done that with a 555.”
But if we can fix our own cars, we might disable the Deep State’s upcoming controls on our travel (speed, total distance, max distance from home, number of trips, amount of gasoline burned, etc). We certainly cannot have that.
“How one couple built a device to fix McDonald’s notoriously broken soft-serve machines—and how the fast-food giant froze them out.”
The device didn’t fix the machines.
Ah, the old triple nickle timer trick!
That’s right. It just means you can’t build and sell machines with their code.
Now apply this to farm equipment, and other vehicles. From what I hear even Commercial trucks in California will literally shut down automatically if they aren’t maintained by specialized licensed repairmen on a regular schedule. Even a small fix like changing spark plugs requires scheduling, and a lot more money than it should cost. Almost anyone could do that, but you need the expert and someone to reset the computer.
This was also impacting farmers. They could not change a simple thing like a fuel pump with out violating a copyright law owned by the manufacturer.
I read a long, drawn out drama about McDonald’s ice cream machines and why they’re always broken.
There was this guy who reverse engineered the firmware of the machines and was fixing the machines for individual franchisees. Taylor sued him out of business.
Ultimately, it came down to the machine’s four hour sterilization process which will fail if the machine’s internal temperature was off by even one degree, requiring another four hour cycle. If it failed twice, the machine shut down until Taylor maintenance people could come to access the firmware and reset the fault code (at big $$$.)
My new Bobcat skid steer had slots for side lights and was prewired for plug and play lights. Ordered the set for $150 and put them in as easy as can be. The light switch has 3 settings; headlights, headlights plus back lights then front, back and side lights. Would not work. The skid steer was not programmed to recognize the lights! The lights that were prewired in the harness to plug into!. Cost $75 for Bobcat to plug in their laptop and tell the machine to “see” the lights. Companies that buy these machines should simply put it in contract at purchase time. You mess with me and I will sue you the distributor and the manufacturer. They will lose but eventually the manufacturers will stop screwing over the customers. they do it because all their peers do it. Proving once again, that CEOs are the worse people to run any company. Sounds silly? Its simply because a CEO stops doing what they did to become a CEO when they get to the top. Why not? Why rock the boat, you wait 2-3 years and move on before your incompetence catches up with you. CEO’s are afraid of their own shadow trying to protect what they have accomplished. The compensation is insane, why would any CEO make changes when they get to the top.
Now do the same for John Deere.
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