McFreedom For The McFlurry Machine

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Here's What Happened:

The Digital Millennial Copyright Act (DMCA) prohibits circumventing encryption that protects copyrighted works. This rule applies to the software embedded in retail restaurant equipment such as ovens, freezers and the machine that McDonalds uses to make McFlurrys. In the realm of unintended consequences, repairs require access to the software that runs the machine. Non-circumvention prohibited a repairman from accessing the machine's software unless they were privy to a long and complicated encryption code. The encryption code is often hard to find. Manuals go outdated. Tracking down a person who knows the code can be time consuming and fruitless. Meanwhile, the restaurant has to turn away customers and wait until someone can crack the code and risk an infringement action under the DMCA.