Feds Side With Right-to-Repair Advocates, Demands Fixible Ice Cream Machines

The reform would promote competition in the repair market and save consumers a lot of money, the federal agencies argued.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) building is seen in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 19, 2006. Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images

A pair of federal governing bodies is advocating for broader exemptions for industrial and commercial repairs that involve tinkering with copyrighted software—a reform that would make it legal for McDonald’s franchise owners to independently fix their chronically broken ice cream machines.

The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice’s anti-trust division are seeking to expand an exemption to a copyright law, so that business owners would be allowed to fix “commercial and industrial equipment” themselves or go to a third-party repair shop, rather than having to rely on officially authorized repairmen.