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Refilling Ink Cartridges Now a Crime?
Eric Smith writes "The Ninth Circuit has created box-wrap patent licenses. Now the label on the box that says "single use only" is given force of law, and if you refill the cartridge you are liable for patent infringement."
"you're suddenly a patent infringer. More importantly, Lexmark can sue cartridge remanufacturers for "inducing" patent infringement by making and selling refills."
How is that patent infringement? Does that cover if I, personally, refill my cartridge at home rather than buying one someone else refilled?
I feel that if I see a better value in a product, I will tend to buy it. If I can reuse a product, the product has more value. Therefore, if this policy will prevent me from refilling a certain brand of ink cartridge, I will simply buy a different brand.
Getting down to ownership; if I buy something, I guess it's not really mine, eh? Stop me.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Apparently the Ninth Circuit thinks that the labelling "single use only" on the box is a legally binding contract, and thus the sale of the product to a consumer is not an "unrestricted sale".
If this is upheld, we can expect that soon all patent holders will be asserting all sorts of control over consumer products that they currently cannot. For instance, when you buy a new cell phone, it might have a label on the box stating that it is only for use with headsets from the same manufacturer. Up until now they've only been able to try to lock you in by putting a proprietary connector on the phone, and that only works until other manufacturers start producing headsets or adapters with that connector, but under the box-wrap precedent they may be able to use force of law to keep you from using an Ericsson headset with a Nokia phone.
Ah, Lexmark is at it again... Gotta love that company - maybe next they'll just send out beefy guys with baseball bats to break the kneecaps of anyone who sells refilled cartridges...
I'll never buy their products anyway, and I'll make sure that everyone I know is well-informed about their business practises...
N.
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
Umm, yes you can, you just cannot distribute it in its new form. Anyway, the one-time-use is fine, you cannot remanufacture their cartridges. But you can refill them, as long as you keep the cartridge in your printer, right? I mean, you're only using the ink once, and you are only using the plastic container once, it's just a very continuous use, as long as you do not let it empty completely.
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I think it's time to remove Lexmark from CUPS. It's clear they don't want to play nicely anymore, so I think it's only fair that from now on the Linux community will no longer support their printers. I know this is only a token gesture, and will likely not hurt their bottom line, but I think we need to make it clear that this sort of behavior is not appreciated and should have consequences.
It is unlikely that Lexmark will bring a patent infringement suit against an individual end user for refilling his or her printer cartridge, but that does not mean that they are unable to do so.
They participated in the program to get cheaper cartrages in exchage to send the empty ones back but failed to do so.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
their business model requires the circumvention of property rights and the tainting of contract law.
opening up a package does not constitute a binding contract no matter how much the briber^H^H lobbyists moan and bitch.
they're just words on a package unless you specifically signed the agreement with an employee of lexmark.
business models are of no concern to customers, legally or morally.
Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
What if the non-contract version was sold for $1,000,000 each? Is it still a fair agreement, or was the agreement forced?
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Actually I think they would probably go for the maximum number of times that you could have refilled it. In the case of laser toner this would be limited by the drum to no more than 3-5 times, but in case of ink refill kits I suppose it could be 50 or even 100 times. That could be alot of money. Like the RIAA, Lexmark would probably say that refilling their cartridge is indistinguishable from robbing them at gunpoint.
The score is
Gigantic Corporations: 1
Everyone Else: 0
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
1/I take the nice package
...
2/I Biff the "1 use only" mention
3/I put my initials on the correction
4/I open the package
Voila !
I didn't accept this part of the contract, I dutifuly notified the other party the same way they notified me, put in the correction I wanted and authenticated it...
Now, when I open this pack, Lexmark is legaly bound to the notification I made
(Yeah, I know, this is stupid, but if it works in one direction, it should work in the other...that's the beauty on the juridic system : you can be two playing at being idiots...)
Also, if they just put a patent on the "one use only" system, I'm sure the Condoms industry can come up with some prior art...
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
Punitive damages? Idiot.
If it's in you sig, it's in your post.
In my fantasy world, some company (perhaps a new entrant) will come up with a printer where they find the correct balance of printer cost vs. ink cost that works for ma and pa kettle and accept something less than an absurd profit margin. This has to be coupled with an aggressive advertising campaign. Obviously this won't be HP because they have a completely fucked business model that depends on milking the golden goose of ink jet cartridges (why people buy HP enterprise servers knowing the viability of the entire company is built on the fickle and irrational willingness of consumers to buy list price HP ink carts at Worst Buy perplexes me to this day - I suppose this is because I didn't get an MBA which would have masked absurdity from my mind).
Such a company would assume that people are willing to pay an extra five bucks per cartridge (as I am) for a "safe" alternative to avoid getting completely fucked and also willing to pay an extra 50 to 75 bucks for a printer (perhaps based on advertising that emphasises the "per page cost") that has reasonable 'per page costs' and will last for 4+ years.
Everyone feels vaguely fucked (or even visibly angry) when they buy their ink jet (or, for the less insightful, their first full-price cartridges) - just like people used to (before cars.com and similar sites) when they bought a car (of course, on those, you can do a little better by negotiating if you figure out which dealers are cars.com dealers and which are not and bypass cars.com and keep the negotiations REALLY crisp with the fleet manager - give me another "$200 off and the deal is closed - else, NO deal and "have a nice day" - my experience is that fleet managers get this and have no problem with it [but, if they can't do it, you MUST walk and use the pricing information you learned on another local dealer -- of course this is useless if you're in a rural area where there is one zzz dealer within 100 miles], unlike the idiots on the retail sales floor)
I suspect that the $200 (and ultimately less) color laser printers will eventually be the death of the absurd ink jet prices. Printing a yahoo map on a color laser works fine. No, you probably won't print hard-copy pictures of the new baby on the laser for your two geriatric relatives (you will send these to snapfish.com and wait three days or two hours at WalMart), but ultimately what we want is a bit of color for productivity - which is only available at at rational price w/color laser
Oh well, back to reality...
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading