Each few years, HP pushes a DRM replace to its printers, blocking using third-party ink cartridges. This sends prospects right into a rage, triggering a class-action lawsuit and a giant settlement payout. However million-dollar lawsuits can’t maintain HP from its DRM habit.
Trendy HP printers use one thing known as “dynamic safety” to detect and block unofficial ink carts. Third-party producers usually discover methods to get round this DRM, and because of this, many HP prospects develop accustomed to unofficial ink.
However HP can replace a printer’s dynamic safety to patch workarounds. And that is the place the issue lies—prospects will spend months or years utilizing unofficial ink carts, solely to activate their printer sooner or later and see “Non-HP Chip Detected.” HP’s web site mentions that this may increasingly happen, although prospects are by no means warned forward of time.
As defined by Ars-Technica, HP has paid a number of million {dollars} in class-action lawsuits associated to its printer DRM. In a U.S. lawsuit, plaintiffs characterised an HP replace as “malware,” arguing that HP altered the performance of printers to make up for declining gross sales.
The character of the printer business is fairly well-known at this level. If somebody buys a printer, they’ll spend the subsequent few years shopping for ink and toner cartridges. So, printers are offered at a loss to succeed in an ultra-competitive value. There’s only one draw back to this enterprise mannequin—if your whole prospects purchase third-party ink, your printer enterprise received’t make any cash!
So, HP’s aggressive DRM isn’t a lot of a shock. The one prospects who will get indignant are those utilizing third-party ink carts. A few of these prospects will give in and purchase official ink. And if a buyer throws their HP printer within the trash, it’s not a loss—that’s one much less buyer for the “unofficial” ink manufacturers.
Notice that this isn’t simply an annoyance to prospects. It’s additionally an environmental downside. Ink and toner cartridges include dangerous chemical compounds and beneficial supplies, together with gold. We don’t should be dumping these things into landfills, and I’d like to know the way this elements into HP’s sustainability pledge.
We’re nonetheless making an attempt to determine which printers are affected by this DRM replace. In accordance with one buyer, an HP consultant says that “all” printers received an update. Ars-Technica discovered complaints for a number of printers, together with the OfficeJet 6978 and 6968, that are discontinued. Clearly, HP focused loads of printers with this DRM replace.
Supply: Ars-Technica
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