McDonald’s Can Now Fix Busted Ice Cream Machines Without Long Wait Times

The days of McDonald's restaurants being unable to serve McFlurry's, milkshakes, and other treats due to a busted ice cream machine may be over.

Last week, the United States Copyright Office granted a copyright exemption that allows the iconic fast-food restaurant the "right to repair" broken machines as they were legally not allowed to do it on their own. That right belonged to the Taylor Company, which had a handshake agreement with McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc that made them the exclusive supplier of milkshakes for the burger joint for over 70 years.

The Taylor company held exclusive copyright on its machines, which had a rule that only its repair people were legally allowed to fix any that were broken. The law that put this into effect was the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998, which criminalizes making or using technology, devices or services that circumvent the control access of copyrighted works, according to TODAY.

Broken ice cream machines have been plaguing McDonald's restaurants for years. Things have gotten so bothersome that a developer took a stand by creating the "McBroken" app in 2020, which highlighted which restaurants weren't serving ice cream-based products in a given location. As of press time, the app claimed that 14.72% of McDonald's restaurants aren't selling ice cream.

However, in July, reps for McDonald's told TODAY that data over the years have shown that ice cream machines, depending on the location, run around "95 percent of the time."