Slashdot Mirror
EFF Calls On HP To Disable Printer Ink Self-Destruct Sequence (arstechnica.com)
HP should apologize to customers and restore the ability of printers to use third-party ink cartridges, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said in a letter to the company's CEO yesterday. From an ArsTechnica report:HP has been sabotaging OfficeJet Pro printers with firmware that prevents use of non-HP ink cartridges and even HP cartridges that have been refilled, forcing customers to buy more expensive ink directly from HP. The self-destruct mechanism informs customers that their ink cartridges are "damaged" and must be replaced. "The software update that prevented the use of third-party ink was reportedly distributed in March, but this anti-feature itself wasn't activated until September," EFF Special Advisor Cory Doctorow wrote in a letter to HP Inc. CEO Dion Weisler. "That means that HP knew, for at least six months, that some of its customers were buying your products because they believed they were compatible with any manufacturer's ink, while you had already planted a countdown timer in their property that would take this feature away. Your customers will have replaced their existing printers, or made purchasing recommendations to friends who trusted them on this basis. They are now left with a less useful printer -- and possibly a stockpile of useless third-party ink cartridges."
Do the world a favor.
This is probably actually illegal. Sony had to pay a settlement for disabling Linux on the PS3; HP is doing the same, so has at least a civil suit. Uniquely, however, HP has proven that their product is compatible with third-party ink, and has taken action to specifically to lock-out competition. That's probably an instance of Tying, and HP has sufficient market power to show that Tying is anti-competitive.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
The only surprise here is that anyone would still recommend HP printers.
Sunk cost fallacy. Cut your losses and move on.
Good-bye
What is this "printer" thing you people speak of?
If you deal with governments, lawyers, or doctors, you still need to print stuff on paper. I emailed a form to my local hospital, and they called and said I had to fax it. So I "e-signed" it, and sent it with my fax card. They called again and said that they could not accept e-signatures, so I had to print it out, sign it with real physical ink, scan it back in, and then fax the image. That was two months ago, and I haven't used my printer since.
If it floats, flies, fucks, or prints, it's cheaper to rent it.
I find I print more often after switching away from inkjet to laser. The problem with inkjet was I'd print so seldom that the cartridges would get clogged and that just made me want to use it even less. Why fiddle around for an hour trying to get a good photo print when the Walmart down the street is faster and doesn't go through $5 in ink each time? I had a geriatric (Centronics-50 SCSI; that's how old) Kodak dye sub printer that was less trouble.
I picked up a used business-class HP B/W laser all-in-one for $25 and the damn thing goes like a champ.
For color, I have a Brother laser. I'll sacrifice print quality for reliability any day.
In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
This. And it will only become worse. When - not if - TTIP or some mutated offspring of it are passed, *ANY* form of circumvention or recourse will cease to be. Forever. We might see FOSS become illegal in short time as well, as "unfair competition". The world will belong to half a dozen megacorporations, at first. Then it will become two. Then one. National sovereignty is already on its way out, superseded by global authorities. Privatization of those authorities is a matter of time. Welcome to the end of times.