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Getting Around Printer-Manufacturer Abuse
An anonymous reader writes "Here's a guy that demonstrates how printer companies abuse their clients. He found that Lexmark cartridges are a perfect replacement for Xerox ones, with only minor modifications to the printer.
It's well illustrated with may photographs."
If cartridges were really overpriced, then a 3rd party would enter the market. That's capitalism 101.
An when a third party enters the market, they get sued under the DCMA. That's capitalism 102.
Xerox: Hello, Lexmark support line.
Caller: Yes I'd like to return my printer for new print heads but it has some... minor modifications.
Xerox: You put a viynl sticker on it?
Caller: Not exactly...
Xerox: You wrote the name of your company or business in large letters on the printer to discourage looting?
Caller: Not quite.....
Xerox: Then what?
Caller: I snapped off some plastic bits, by erm, accident.
Xerox: These wouldn't happen to be the print cartridge grabbing bits would they?
Caller: Why yes! They just so happen to be, coincidentally.
Xerox: No support for you! Call back, one year! (dialtone)
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
It seems it's defeating a security feature...
He could probably also make som decent savings by cutting down on the exclamation marks!!!
I just bought an Epson wide format for 5 bucks that was donated by a place that switched to inkjets (FOOLS!)
They are harder to find now that inkjet and laser are cheap and plentyful, but they are out there. I recall a trip to the Salvation Army warehouse in Minneapolis in the mid 90s where they had a 40+ foot wall of dot matrix printers. They also had pee-stained underwear, I recall with disgust.
Hell, the store in my small town here has two lasers, an inkjet, a dot matrix, and an Apple IIgs with all the trimmings (disks, monitor, and an Imagewriter II - the best dot matrix ever :) The printers are 5 dollars, the IIgs is 30!
You can't go wrong with an Imagewriter.
They also have pee-stained underwear, microwaves with dials, candy from dead people's houses, and what I think may be the world's largest bra.
Fun for the whole family!
It's well illustrated with [many] photographs.
Translation: the site won't survive 5 minutes of slashdotting.
The shareholder is always right.
...you can get a new Lexmark for about 30 Euro with (full!) back and color cartridges.
You print with it until the cartridges are empty.
Then you drive to Lexmark Germany and throw the now worthless printer without wasting any comments into their front garden and go and buy the next one.
Someday they'll learn and understand.
End of story.
They already tried to take the information down... ... they submitted the site to SlashDot ;)
...That Xerox tries to sue this guy to take down the information?
the world's gone mad. now Xerox is going to sue someone for copying something?
in this age of communication i'm just not getting through
...to get modded +5, Informative, I simply have to make two factual statements, one of which is wrong, and the other monumentally obvious.
Fantastic
You should have switched to Libux.
I just buy a new printer whenever I run out of ink.
It costs less.