Ok, so first off, you can't copyright a whole machine. Patents cover ideas, copyright covers creative expression, which legally includes software. And the specific part of the law iFixit is worried about is DMCA 1201 which covers software that is designed to prevent copying of copyrighted works.
In the specific case of Kytch, they built another machine that reads error codes off the electronics on a machine that deliberately attempts to hide the error codes from McDonalds franchisees. This doesn't modify the software on those electronics, so there isn't a copyright violation. And Taylor doesn't have a patent on usable error codes or reading them off a machine deliberately designed to obscure them. This shouldn't be covered by any reading of DMCA 1201, but they want the Copyright Office to say, "yes, this is legal" anyway.
I'm not entirely sure why you're invoking Ayn Rand in your grandparent comment.
In the specific case of Kytch, they built another machine that reads error codes off the electronics on a machine that deliberately attempts to hide the error codes from McDonalds franchisees. This doesn't modify the software on those electronics, so there isn't a copyright violation. And Taylor doesn't have a patent on usable error codes or reading them off a machine deliberately designed to obscure them. This shouldn't be covered by any reading of DMCA 1201, but they want the Copyright Office to say, "yes, this is legal" anyway.
I'm not entirely sure why you're invoking Ayn Rand in your grandparent comment.