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HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

telegraph.co.uk

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Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#111

Post by amluto »

kerkeslager wrote: post #59
gameman144 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think prison time is even what's needed here, I think these issues would resolve themselves if corporate fines were continually issued, rather than one-off lawsuits. For instance, a standing ruling that if your printer stops being able to print for no reason other than a contract breach, then the hardware is eligible for a refund. We don't need to put CEOs in prison for making consumer-hostile decisions, we j…

Corporate fines just end up being passed on to workers who had nothing to do with the decision. "We had to (lay off 10% of our workforce|cut worker pay by 10%|etc.) because of these unfair fines." Corporations aren't people--they can't make the decision to do unethical things. Yes, I understand the law, I'm saying the law is incorrect. People do unethical things, and people should be held responsible for their action…

If you can run a successful business by selling $100 objects that cost $20 each to make and result in an average of $90 of fines per sale, and make it up by mistreating your workers, I applaud you.

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#112

Post by snvzz »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #35

Did you know Brother makes really good printers that are inexpensive and live a long, happy, life? And their drivers aren't user hostile? This is one of those really good "vote with your wallets" situations.

Not every Brother printer is usable.

Ethernet, IPP and Postscript support are requirements.

So that they can work with generic drivers, on a range of platforms, without much setup complexity.

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#113

Post by synergy20 »

It's like Toyota will disable my car if I did not go to its dealers to do oil changes or regular maintenance.

Make your ink cartridge super high quality with reasonable price, I will buy it. Selling a printer at dirty cheap price and expect to recoup the discount via over priced ink cartridges? your sales and marketing department are doing it wrong, and it's not my problem at all.

Besides, who needs printers these days anymore?

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#114

Post by bxparks »

jeltz wrote: post #78
rhaway84773 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is so bipolar. This seems to be the top vote comment here, demanding jail time for CEOs for printers not working. Meanwhile, the top comment on an article painstakingly detailing how a company is using every dirty trick in the book to get mentally incapable or distressed, etc people to sell homes to them at far below market value has a top comment basically saying “well, they signed a contract”. Or maybe it’s as s…

HN is more than just one guy and different articles attract different audiences.

Can't believe someone downvoted your perfectly reasonable comment.

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#115

Post by helsontaveras18 »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #52
CoastalCoder wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious if this violates U.S. code 1030(a)(5) [0] "(5) (A)knowingly causes the transmission of a program, information, code, or command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally causes damage without authorization, to a protected computer; (B)intentionally accesses a protected computer without authorization, and as a result of such conduct, recklessly causes damage; or (C)intentionally accesses a protected…

Are we even sure that the customers legally own the printers? For instance, has anyone bothered to read the EULA that came with whatever bundled software someone installs now days to get the printer driver working? Even if there isn't surreptitious transfer of the hardware, they could certainly have a clause in there that authorizes them to do such things.

Yes, non-proud HP InkJet owner. You own the printer. However, you MUST be subscribed to their HP Whatever Program and pre-pay them the amount of pages you’d like to print on a monthly basis. You cannot print unless you are on the program. I did read these terms because it was insane, and I’m paraphrasing.

It looks like they updated their program terms to force you to buy their ink. Honestly I thought that was already the case since I had tried using cheaper ink and the printer rejected it.

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#116

Post by snvzz »

Where are the Open Source Hardware printers?

Literally everybody (except printer makers) hates the printer landscape.

All we'd need is to pool money to design a cost-effective open source hardware modular monochrome laser printer with open firmware.

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#117

Post by Dylan16807 »

einpoklum wrote: post #95
crazygringo wrote: post #69

I just want to be clear, because this headline is borderline clickbait. HP is not bricking the printers. The printers will continue to work if you put the HP cartridges back in. I'm not condoning HP at all , not in a million years. But the verb "disable" carries connotations of permanence, so it seems like a disingenuous word choice at best, if it's not outright clickbait. Just so people aren't confused here.

> HP is not bricking the printers. The printers will continue to work if you put the HP cartridges back in. That's semi-bricking the printers. > I'm not condoning HP at all, not in a million years. You're semi-condoning them.

> That's semi-bricking the printers.

I suppose you could say that, but it would mean something quite different from what bricking normally does. And I wouldn't advise it because it sounds like a soft brick rather than "beep boop replace cartridge".

> You're semi-condoning them.

No they're not.

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#118

Post by RobotToaster »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #35

Did you know Brother makes really good printers that are inexpensive and live a long, happy, life? And their drivers aren't user hostile? This is one of those really good "vote with your wallets" situations.

My brother laser seems to eat colour toner when it's only printing black and white for some reason.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a decent printer, but short of what I would consider "really good".

Also, I read here in another thread that a recent firmware update also blocked third party cartridges.

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#119

Post by anigbrowl »

crazygringo wrote: post #85
mcny wrote: post #12

The CEO and the board must serve prison time for things like this. No measure less than prison for the CEO and all board members is enough to curtail this because it just becomes the cost of doing business. No, you can’t say it wasn’t your decision. If you want to not be held accountable for the work your employees, contractors, and agents do on your behalf, you should have to prove they acted against your express wr…

Why not send top stockholders to prison while you're at it? And regional managers as well? And the stores that sell the printers too? No, prison makes zero sense. When people agree to a business contract and one side fails to uphold their end of the bargain, the remedy should remain financial. And punitive remedies exist precisely to make sure the "cost of doing business" makes it no longer profitable. And if that's…

It's not as if corporate actors are passive non-participants in the political process, abstaining from lobbying or campaign financing. It's much more economical for corporation to influence legislation/regulation than for voters to build a coalition and then try to leverage it to significantly alter the status quo. Ignoring this reality makes idealistic arguments like yours seem naive at best.

Re: HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals

#120

Post by RobotToaster »

einpoklum wrote: post #104
DiabloD3 wrote: post #35

Did you know Brother makes really good printers that are inexpensive and live a long, happy, life? And their drivers aren't user hostile? This is one of those really good "vote with your wallets" situations.

I use a Brother multi-function (MFC-L2710DW). > And their drivers aren't user hostile? They offer a closed-source Linux and you need to download an installer from them (an i386 binary, which also works on i686 and x86_64); so, not great. The driver is mostly-reliable, although every once in a while it does kind of give out on you and printing fails, possibly until a restart. I suppose on Windows it's better. > really…

>They offer a closed-source Linux and you need to download an installer from them

Similar experience with their label printers, except they only had a i386 binary, which rather killed my idea of a raspberry pi print server. Also it was generally just terrible and froze after a few labels.

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