HP Secretly Rendering Printer Cartridges Unusable?

Momoru writes "Looks like a woman is suing Hewlett Packard, claiming that their "smart chip" technology, besides giving information about ink usage, is also secretly programmed to not work after a certain certain date." From the article: "HP ink cartridges use a chip technology to sense when they are low on ink and advise the user to make a change. But the suit claims those chips also shut down the cartridges at a predetermined date regardless of whether they are empty." We've reported recently on printer companies making questionable business decisions.

Comments

Proof?

[nuclear305]

Does this woman actually have proof of this or is she just angry about having to pay HP's prices for replacements?

It wouldn't surprise me at all, but I'll believe it when I'm able to read the alleged expiration date off of my own HP cartridges. I've had an HP printer for 2 years--some of the cartridges are original and some have been replaced just once. I can't say I've ever had them stop working or falsely report empty. The nice thing is the cartridges are even a clear case so I can easily optically verify whether they are empty or not.

Ink dries out eventually

[ExMember]

I'm sure dried ink can reek havoc on printer heads. This is not necessarily an attempt to screw over their customers

Re:Legitimate reason:

[algae]

Reliable document date-stamps seem like a very good reason for the drivers of your (presumably) $X0,000 plotter to query the system date. However, this article is about a cheap inkjets with high-margin cartridges.