HP to Region-code Cartridges

prostoalex writes "Looks like the printer cartridge manufacturers will be borrowing techniques from Hollywood. HP introduced region coding for some of the newest printers sold in Europe. HP's US location and US dollar sliding lead to the situation, where cartridge prices in Europe are significantly higher than those in the States. In the Wall Street Journal article HP representative in Europe claims the company doesn't make any money off regional coding for cartridges, and that consumers will win once the US dollar rises over Euro."

Comments

Dollar rising

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, the dollar will rise against the euro!?!?! When exactly? From where I'm looking, it looks like the current barmy US economic policy will see it sliding indefinately... say goodbye to buying oil with dollars.

Import printers?

[lintux]

How are they going to prevent me from importing a printer together with the cartridges? Or will they find some neat software scheme in the driver to find out in which country the printer is being used?

Oh well, time to find a printer manufacturer with printers as their core business instead of selling printer ink for gold-prices.

Re:Where's AntiTrust when you need them?

[agoliveira]

Not counting that in the rest of the world is not crime to circunvent this kind of measure. Here in Brazil we have lots of companies that sells ink cardriges. Some of them are as good as the originals. The only thing the original manufacturers can do is to make ads like "Use only a original XX cardrige or youir printer will fail, burn your house and kill your dog". And, BTW, all DVD players sold here can have it's region enconding changed as will as well. And guess what? It's quite rare to see bootleg DVDs because people here prefer region 4 DVDs because they have the local language and/or subtitles and the ones like me who have imported stuff which is not usually published around here is very happy to be able to see a DVD which was legally imported and paid for.

Buy a Postscript printer

[anti-NAT]

Yes, they are more expensive, however it tends to be the "native" format for most Unix / Linux applications, and brand independent.

I have a HP LaserJet 6MP with Postscript for that reason. I did pay a small fortune for it a number of years ago, including upgrading the ram to 19MB (3MB factory + 16 MB). If and when I replace it, I may not buy a HP again, however I'll certainly be looking for a Postscript replacement.