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Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

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Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#391

Post by reayn »

zeusk wrote: post #386
neilv wrote: post #173

As many techies will probably always say anytime inkjet product shenanigans come up: just buy a laser printer. And I now add: and don't let it connect to the Internet, and don't install proprietary drivers or software for it on your computers. Also, remember the names of companies doing sketchy things, and do your part to provide negative feedback when you can, and to give positive feedback to better companies. (Exam…

What Apple alternatives have you been using?

Would help if you could be more specific here but aside from hardware (macbook/iPhone) there's alternatives (not just competitive but also plain better ones) to just about every service Apple provides.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#392

Post by axiolite »

dn3500 wrote: post #350
neilv wrote: post #173

As many techies will probably always say anytime inkjet product shenanigans come up: just buy a laser printer. And I now add: and don't let it connect to the Internet, and don't install proprietary drivers or software for it on your computers. Also, remember the names of companies doing sketchy things, and do your part to provide negative feedback when you can, and to give positive feedback to better companies. (Exam…

Re: Printer drivers, you mostly don't need them any more, because almost all printers will now ingest pdf directly. You can bypass cups and your driver and talk directly to the printer using nc: cat myfile.pdf |nc printername 9100

I previously explained why this is a terrible idea:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28058184

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#393

Post by tannhaeuser »

zeusk wrote: post #386
neilv wrote: post #173

As many techies will probably always say anytime inkjet product shenanigans come up: just buy a laser printer. And I now add: and don't let it connect to the Internet, and don't install proprietary drivers or software for it on your computers. Also, remember the names of companies doing sketchy things, and do your part to provide negative feedback when you can, and to give positive feedback to better companies. (Exam…

What Apple alternatives have you been using?

Seconding that. If you mean Apple's scanning of photos for CP when they're not required to by law, that is absurdly anti-customer for sure. But using any Google/Android device other than Lineage, eSolutions, etc is way, way worse. Just so we're on the same page, on Monday or so we were discussing Samsung's keyboard app selling your keyboard presses to third parties, and Samsung is even considered premium.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#394

Post by garaetjjte »

chaoskanzlerin wrote: post #74
jsilence wrote: post #44

Not to be meant snarky, but I think the office world should strive to print much less at all. Working at a University it is mind boggling to me how much paper is waster because someone internally decided they need a real signature. Not all my colleagues are savyy enough to paste a scanned signature into a pdf.

There's plenty of jurisdictions where "pasting a scanned signature into a pdf" doesn't produce a legally valid signature. Germany requires some signing software for pdfs - though printed-signed-scanned documents are also legally valid signatures

>doesn't produce a legally valid signature

Is there any place where it does? It seems ridiculous to me to treat copy-pasted bitmap same as real signature.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#395

Post by aesh2Xa1 »

int_19h wrote: post #367
quickthrower2 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brother sells overpriced refills but there are off brand replacements about half the price. They also report ink run out on starter cartridges when it hasn’t. I think the only ethical printers are 3D ones.

Have you tried resetting the counter? The procedure is different on different models, but it goes something like this: https://www.inkhub.com.au/ink/brother-mfc-l3750cdw-toner-res...

Recent firmware updates have disabled this workaround. Brother has joined the malfeasance club.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#396

Post by wly_cdgr »

MathMonkeyMan wrote: post #97
wly_cdgr wrote: post #24

Imagine willingly working for a company that does this. Every employee of Canon should be ashamed of themselves

If you have the luxury of protesting with your job selection (as many do), then this is fine. Isn't it a slippery slope, though? I'd venture to guess almost any largish company has done something inexcusable by someone's reasonable standard. Should be all be ashamed for being members of the worker society?

If you work for a company that does things that you yourself believe to be wrong then yes, you should be ashamed. And everyone should believe that what Canon is doing is wrong

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#397

Post by b112 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #313
netcan wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an onion article in there somewhere. Honestly, giving a money grubbing printer a credit card and ordering powers might make a decent analogy to parts of the supply chain issues at large.

Yup. I mean, I've heard HP has some silly "ink as a service" program, but honestly, giving credit card details to a printer? That sounds extremely unwise (and the fact it's even possible says something about the world we live in, and not nice things).

It'd be like giving it to your toaster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRq_SAuQDec

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#398

Post by ouid »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #362
ouid wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinda sounds like the whole economy though.

In some ways we bring it on ourselves by being such cheapskates. People post reviews in the app stores because they think $2 is expensive for an app then wonder why they end up with free software that sells their private data to the highest bidder.

It's not an "either/or" situation, apps compete on price and that's just not where they make their money, largely.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#399

Post by b112 »

anonymousab wrote: post #373
ncallaway wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do printers have an End User License Agreement? The last printer I bought, I was able to setup and print with, without (explicitly) agreeing to any license. Is the EULA part of a software install process?

There's usually a clause somewhere in small print where you agree to some massive EULA on some url through just the act of buying the product.

Many people buy printers in stores, still. Point of sale rules apply there.

If even one person does this, then the parent's comment is valid.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#400

Post by b112 »

stephbu wrote: post #316
jacquesm wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ebay: used 4 series. It'll be a heirloom.

TBH this… Not one of these consumer printer businesses is going to survive commoditization of their now-primary source of consumer revenue - ink (the printer is just a loss-leading on-ramp to that business). These suicide-pills are the last gasps of a dying business model. Businesses don’t tolerate such shenanigans, but you and I will pay the price for doing so.

People have been buying 3rd party toner and ink for printers, for 30+ years.

And before that, 3rd party ink and ribbons, for dot matrix printers.

I agree that the consumer print business has gone down a strange path, bit this sort stuff has been going on forever.

EG, printers purposefully wasting ink, I recall 20+ years ago.

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