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North Carolina Fights Back Against Lexmark
ngrier writes "Seems that at least some aren't sitting idly by, while printer manufacturers try to assert total control. The North Carolina legislature just approved a measure which guarantees the consumer's right to refill ink cartridges. For history of the Lexmark DMCA-related story, involving the company placing copyright-protected code in their printer cartridges in order to prevent competitors from producing compatible cartridges, there are previous Slashdot posts about it here(1), here(2), and here(3)."
More on topic, if this bill get's signed it'll be interesting to see if similar legislation is passed in other states.
The big money is in toner not inkjet ink. Toner cartridges are the cartridges that Lexmark put anti-refill technology on. Things like counting the amount of times the drum roles restricting the cartridge to so many pages printed (even if there's still toner left in the cartridge!) there are companies out there that can circumvent this. check out Multilaser
I wonder how long before you see "intro" ink cartridges (with only like 25% filled) being supplied with the original printer?
I think three or four years ago?
The thing that continues to be overlooked by the editors here:
The chipped cartridges, are NOT the only option for these printers.
There are 2 sets of cartridges that Lexmark sells. One set, is chipped for single use, and then you're obligated to return the cartridge back to Lexmark for them to refurbish, etc. They call it a "pre-bate" basically they are rebating you for returning the empty, at the time of purchase.
If you want to reuse/refill, etc yourself, then you can buy the non-prebated inks. And then you can just go hog wild.
Caveat Emptor.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
Actually, Apple used DMCA to keep Other World Computing from patching iDVD so it'd work with other external and internal DVD-RWs
That's all I found from looking for Apple DMCA and Apple DMCA ROM
This is where you are wrong. Apple is a hardware company that writes their own OS and software.
Apple makes their money on hardware sales. Period. Remeber the clone wars? Power Computing, Umax and the others qucikly developed better and more powerful machines than Apple. This almost killed them. They spent more time and money updating the OS (no profit here) while everyone purchased everyone elses hardware. if Steve Jobs had not come back in the fold and killed the clones Apple wouldn't be here today. Don't get me wrong, I was as pissed off as everyone else when the clones were killed but in the long run I now see it was the right thing to do. This same reasoning goes to why you will never see OSX on x86.
Somewhere you've glossed over the fact that companies that create disposable junk increase the wear and tear on our natural environment.
Consider printer ink which you "could" buy by the liter. Instead, now we've got to buy the box, the plastic sealing, and the heavy plastic ink cartridge.
Waste, pure waste. Lexmark should be held accountable!
+100
think if Ford Motor Company tried to completely control the aftermarket by trying to control the tire you put on your car by some device, I think this Legislature would act.
Actually, I think this started to happen in the past. Ever heard of the Magnuson/Moss Warranty Act?
Neither did I, until I started putting aftermarket stuff on my truck and the Dodge dealer started getting pissy. In a nutshell, it says that no manufacturer can deny and warranty claim or make any warrany dependont on the use of any aftermarket parts, UNLESS that part can be proven to have caused the damage.
The same should apply to any other sane industry, of which computers does seem [sane] anymore.
We don't tolerate those practices anywhere else, except for computers/software. Nice to see someone pitching an official bitch about it.