from the down-with-drm dept
When it pertains to obnoxious DRM and unusual, greedy limitations, no one does it much better than printer makers. The market has actually long waged a not-so-subtle war by itself consumers, regularly presenting firmware updates or DRM avoiding them from utilizing more budget-friendly, rival printer cartridges.
A couple of years earlier, printer makers took this method one action even more, and started avoiding users from having the ability to utilize a multifunction printer’s scanner if they didn’t have actually business approved ink set up. Canon was struck with a $ 5 million suit in 2021 for the practice, however had the ability to silently settle it independently without dealing with much responsibility, or needing to alter much of its habits.
In 2022 HP was likewise struck with a suit (pdf) for avoiding scanners from working without approved ink cartridges set up, and not being transparent about this with consumers. HP has actually invested a couple of years attempting to wiggle out of the fit, however hasn’t had much luck. Recently, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman ruled that the case might continue
HP attorneys had actually attempted numerous strategies to have the case dismissed, consisting of declaring that the court could not rely on the word of among its own assistance associates when they specified at the business’s own site HP printers were particularly created to include this mistake. They likewise attempted to play some semantic patty cake, firmly insisting that consumers could not show they were being “actively” deceiving:
HP in looking for a termination stated the consumers stopped working to declare such a task or that it “actively” hid any problem.
Elegant.
Amusingly, other business like Epson have actually attempted to utilize HP and Canon’s difficulties to their benefit. The Brink keeps in mind that Epson has an whole page in their frequently asked question committed to how they have not pulled this sort of technique because 2008 (though the business takes part in other dodgy shit, like presenting supposed “security updates” that discreetly avoid users from having the ability to utilize less expensive third-party cartridges).
I believe HP and Canon are extremely lucky that U.S. customer security regulators usually do not have (thanks to years of lobbying) the time, personnel, or resources to police the huge quantity of this kind of scams that takes place in this nation daily. Particularly when it pertains to the type of ham-fisted limitations on what customers can do with innovation they supposedly own.
Submitted Under: customers, drm, hardware, ink cartridge, printer, limitations
Business: hp