this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2024
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This is a nice win for self-repair hardware rights.

For context, see their old video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uCpY3tFTIA

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[–] [email protected] 111 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

While there is feel good framing, write ups like this just reinforce what a dystopian hell hole we live in. It is depressing.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

You're not wrong, but I'd still encourage everyone to celebrate the small victories. If we wait for perfection it may never come.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the merely good" is one (imo important) way to state it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Yes, but framing is important. Saying "Oh look what our perfect corporate buddies over at Taylor let us do even though it's their call" (a huge lie btw.) vs. saying "We finally got this victory, we can finally do part of what we should've never have been unable to do due to corporate greed, thank you Taylor for getting some sense, it seems like your scrooges still have some semblance of a soul left" is a big difference. As always, the truth is somewhere in between these two extremes. However, I'm inclned to lean towards the latter more than the former on the spectrum.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

Oh, tbh I was just commenting the sort of "pithy" way to say what commenter above me was saying. I wasn't actually commenting on the situation, screw McDonalds and Taylor both lol

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

as long as we are walking forwards, and not backwards or sideways, we can go one step at a time and we will be closer to something better.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

Plus it's still an improvement over the alternative.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The only Victory I see in my medium term future is leaving the country. The US is fucked 5 ways to sunday and honestly I don't see that recovering any time soon

[–] [email protected] 82 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (4 children)

Ah this bit is sad. The exception only covers bypassing DMCA protections to fix your own stuff not distributing the tooling for it.

It is still a crime for iFixit to sell a tool to fix ice cream machines, and that’s a real shame. The ruling doesn’t change the underlying statute making it illegal to share or sell tools that bypass software locks. This leaves most of the repair work inaccessible to the average person, since the technical barriers remain high. Without these tools, this exemption is largely theoretical for many small businesses that don’t have in-house repair experts.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 weeks ago

Long hard fight.

We take our Ws where we can get them.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Illegal like sharing pirated media.
It can't be commercialised, but if you just "happen" to find the software somewhere, you are allowed to use it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

Corpos hate decentralized operations...

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

They should do like the folks selling weed in DC, where they sell you a $200 cookie or sticker and give you a free ounce of weed with your purchase.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

I wonder if someone could invent a new open source machine of some sort along with a tool to fix that, and that tool just happens to also be able to fix the McDonald's ice cream machines?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

I mean, you could. The problem becomes "do you have more money and lawyers than McDonald's" to keep pretending it has nothing to do with it in court.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 4 weeks ago

That's great, but I'm sure Taylor (ice cream machine manufacturer) will still void your warranty, and McDonald's corporate will still tell you you're required to have Taylor service it. There were blackboxed control bypass devices for these machines that let them run longer and self-clean better, but McDonald's sent out a memo requiring all franchisees to remove them and only allow Taylor to work on those machines.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Sweet! Sub par soft-serve for everyone!

[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

It’s not even cheap anymore :(

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago

Was McDonalds ever cheap in the first place?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Costco’s soft-serve is way better than McD’s and actually is cheap.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 weeks ago

Maybe not now since we can hack it

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

McDonald's franchisees being forced to buy one specific problematic ice cream machine is ducked up on it's own. Let them choose what works.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

The whole situation is ducked IMO.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

My ice cream came with bronzer smeared all over the cone last time I went there.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 weeks ago

No extra charge?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 weeks ago

"You are allowed to repair the thing you own"

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Why would you buy an ice cream machine from McDonalds? They have bland food and cut cola with hygiene problems in their ice machines.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 weeks ago

If you run a franchise, you have to get the machine from a specific vendor. That vendor makes a killing charging for their techs to come over to fix those machines. There's some videos on YouTube that explain how the scam works.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

Why would anyone even eat there?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Thumbnail isn't even a Mcds unit.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago

Well they weren't allowed to before

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

I don't think I've ever ordered ice-cream from McDonald's. Not exactly the type of product I'd go to a hamburger joint for.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

While McDonald’s ice cream isn’t great, hamburger joints are usually a great spot for ice cream and milkshakes

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

That's all I used to go there for, but not sure if it's different ice-cream in Europe.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Their ice cream and McFlurry is used to be really good for the value

I say used to because they more or less butchered the McFlurry in the past 7 years they no longer have the iconic spoons they've removed the packaging replacing it with a slightly smaller packaging and they've increased the cost by about double.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

you cant sell/buy a tool but i wonder if you can hire a contractor to build you one.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago

Just transfer ownership to the company that has the tools and lease it back.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

This was exactly what I thought. You could start a staffing company that supplied skilled temp workers with this skill set.