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HP To Issue 'Optional Firmware Update' Allowing 3rd-Party Ink (arstechnica.com)
Soon after the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) issued a letter to HP, calling for them to apologize to customers for releasing firmware that prevents the use of non-HP ink cartridges and refilled HP cartridges, the company has responded with a temporary solution. HP "will issue an optional firmware update that will remove the dynamic security feature" for certain OfficeJet printers. Ars Technica reports: HP made its announcement in a blog post titled "Dedicated to the best printing experience." "We updated a cartridge authentication procedure in select models of HP office inkjet printers to ensure the best consumer experience and protect them from counterfeit and third-party ink cartridges that do not contain an original HP security chip and that infringe on our IP," the company said. The recent firmware update for HP OfficeJet Pro, and OfficeJet Pro X printers "included a dynamic security feature that prevented some untested third-party cartridges that use cloned security chips from working, even if they had previously functioned," HP said. For customers who don't wish to be protected from the ability to buy less expensive ink cartridges, HP said it "will issue an optional firmware update that will remove the dynamic security feature. We expect the update to be ready within two weeks and will provide details here." This customer-friendly move may just be a one-time thing. HP said it will continue to use security features that "protect our IP including authentication methods that may prevent some third-party supplies from working." Without the optional firmware update, printers will only be able to use third-party ink cartridges that have an "original HP security chip," the company said.
Interesting. I like the hurt tone of the press release. "We're just trying to protect you from your cheap piratatical impulses. You could catch something horrible from those illegal immoral filthy aftermarket cartridges, and when you buy one of those things your money goes straight to ISIS' Fund for Killing Adorable Puppies. But whatever, you cretinous monkeys, if you want to hate Freedom and break all the laws of Nature and This Great Country, go ahead and download this new firmware. Download and be damned!"
But I think we can brave the perils of untested ink, we will chart for you the untested waters of that dangerous substance that mortal men (and HP engineers, obviously) don't dare to touch, we shall make it our mission to ensure that these nefarious cartridges and ink tanks shall not remain on the shelves, for we will drain them, use and abuse them, test them to the limit, so no longer you have to endure the dangers of untested ink in your printers.
No, there is no need to thank us. That's our gift to you, our beloved maker of printer hardware. This is brand loyalty!
(tl;dr: HP, don't try to out-bullshit internet users, we are better at this than even your marketing department)
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If you didnt spend so much $ on putting security chips in your ink cartridges then maybe you could sell them for less $. Ink is a commodity, if someone wants to put generic ink in their machine, it should not be an intellectual property crime to do so, but since you sell the printers at a loss and make all of your $ on ink sales, maybe you need to rethink your business model. What's next people? Coffee machines that prevent you from using your own coffee that didn't come from the manufacturer of the coffee machine?
To be fair, Samsung also makes ink cartridges. It's possible that HP just cast the safety net a little too wide.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
HP engineers the best and most-secure printing systems in the world. We strive to always provide the highest-quality experiences for our customers and partners. As a new company, we are committed to transparency in all of our communications and when we fall short, we call ourselves out.
WT actual F?
HP was "new" in 1939 when they sold audio oscillators to Walt Disney to help develop the sound systems needed for Fantasia. Learn your history, dweeb. If Fred Terman could see your company now, he'd kick Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard out of EE school and then shoot himself.
There's a reason why the very first verb in the very first sentence of the Wikipedia article on Hewlett-Packard is "Was."
An optional temporary solution for certain OfficeJet printers?
Wow thats big of them.
I'm VERY glad I already broke a long-time habit and chose other than HP for my last printer purchase. With this kind of response from HP I will actively avoid ever buying another HP product.
See "The Dirty Little Secret Of Inkjet Printers":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycD4XkUtbIw
Laser ones are cheap enough. Jus follow this page recommendations.
Top 5 laser printers for refilling:
http://www.urefilltoner.co.uk/test-lab-printer-reviews.html
I've been a loyal seller, fan, user of HP printers since the first HP Laserjet. This has made me pause to think perhaps my next printer won't be an HP. To HP: I don't need or require your protection. If I purchase a non-HP ink cartridge and it doesn't work properly, I'll get burned and will then purchase your cartridges. If I find that other (lower cost) cartridges work just fine, I'll use them and you will learn to be more competitive.
Before I get into it, I must admit it's not clear if refilled cartridges work or not. I think we have just some anecdotes that they don't but it could be isolated cases. So HP's claims there might have merit.
Now that that's over with, I want to draw your attention to this gem that caught my eye from HP's statements:
This is amazing when you break it down. First of all you have this reasonable part:
So far so good. Without any context it seems a reasonable enough statement.
The use of "that" here, though, indicates they are talking about a specific subset of counterfeit or third party ink cartridges (or that they believe all of them fit the following criteria). This is where they shoot themselves in the foot I think.
So, in other words, they are requiring you to only buy cartridges with their DRM in order to ensure you only buy cartridges with their DRM. Great circular logic there. But the best part is next:
Why do they infringe? Because big companies have lobbied for laws to give themselves more power when it comes to their IP, and its these laws that give HP the authority to do what they do (as opposed to laws that might protect creators of competitive products). So HP's reasoning here is because it's legal, they're gonna do it. So if you strip away will the corporate speak, their OFFICIAL statement is not too far from that they're doing it because they thought they could get away with it.
Serious question - why does your printer have access to the Internet? This is poor security protocol. Proper security is to drop traffic by default, white list what you need. You never truly know what your devices will try to do. As an example, I installed security cameras outside my home and linked them to a linux based PVR for the interface/recording. I noticed that my firewall was dropping tons of data from the IPs assigned to the cameras. A quick dump of the traffic uncovered all cameras trying to connect out to a pair of IPs hosted on amazonaws. I never asked or gave consent for this to happen. The same thing would go with a printer, I don't want it to have access to the Internet. The only thing I want it to do is to print pages I send to it. It doesn't need to update firmware unless I manually push it, in which case I'd have a pretty damn good reason - which wouldn't include limiting my ink cartridge choices. For reference, here is a data dump from one of those cameras.
master@EdgeRouter:~$ sudo tcpdump -i eth0 host 192.168.1.248
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on eth0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 65535 bytes
22:13:46.947684 IP 192.168.1.248.58611 > 192.168.1.1.domain: 895+ A? www.nwsvr1.com. (32)
22:13:46.948215 IP 192.168.1.1.domain > 192.168.1.248.58611: 895 1/0/0 A 54.247.103.91 (48)
22:13:46.996373 IP 192.168.1.248.33102 > 239.255.255.250.1900: UDP, length 421
22:13:48.191871 IP 192.168.1.248.14620 > ec2-54-245-98-57.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com.32100: UDP, length 4
22:13:48.192026 IP 192.168.1.248.14620 > 123.56.159.92.32100: UDP, length 4
22:13:48.192104 IP 192.168.1.248.14620 > ec2-54-217-201-148.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com.32100: UDP, length 4
Do you want your devices to serve you, or do you want your devices to serve the device maker and their will? It might seem extreme to some but as far as I'm concerned the only sane thing to do is treat *every* device as hostile until you know otherwise, drop all packets with a hardware firewall by default, and only approve the traffic you want to go out.