Manufacturers opposed the exemption, but it received support from the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

“The Register recommends the adoption of a new exemption for the diagnosis, maintenance and repair of commercial retail food preparation equipment because proponents have adequately demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence that this will negatively impact proposed non-infringing uses of such equipment.” , the Register's findings said.

Commercial and industrial food preparation equipment is exempt. Unlike retail equipment, software-enabled industrial machines “can vary widely in several aspects, and proponents have not established a record of adverse effects with respect to industrial equipment,” the Register wrote.

Error codes are not intuitive and change frequently

Although ice cream machines are not the only affected equipment, the Register's recommendations state that “advocates primarily relied on the example of a frequently broken soft-serve ice cream machine in a restaurant to illustrate the negative impact on repair activities.”

Advocates said repairing the Taylor Company ice cream machines used at McDonald's required users to interpret “unintuitive” error codes. Some error codes are listed in the user manual, but these manuals are “often outdated and incomplete” because error codes can change with each firmware update.

Repair difficulties associated with “technological protection measures” or TPMs have been described as follows:

Additionally, other error codes can only be accessed by reading a service manual provided only to authorized technicians or through a “TPM locked service menu on the device.” This service menu can only be accessed using a manufacturer-approved diagnostic tool or through an “advanced, undocumented keyboard shortcut.” However, “it is unclear whether the 16-key key sequence… still works or has been changed in subsequent firmware updates.” Proponents accordingly claimed that many users would be unable to diagnose and repair the machine without it Bypassing the machine's TPM to access the service menu software, causing significant financial damage through lost revenue.

The Register said it is clear that “diagnosing the soft-serve machine's trouble codes for repair purposes can often only be accomplished by accessing software on the machine protected by TPMs (which require a passcode or proprietary diagnostic tool to unlock). )” and that “the risk of litigation if they are circumvented discourages users from engaging in repair-related activities.”