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Ryan Sullivan cancelled what he thought was a "random charge for $4.99 per month from HP called 'Instant Ink'". Then his printer refused to print:
It turns out that HP requires its customers to enroll HP Instant Ink eligible printers into one of the Instant Ink plans, and continue paying a monthly subscription in order to be allowed to use the device.
But where's the need to come up with different plans coming from, you may wonder? HP explains: the company charges a fee based on the number of pages a customer prints each month, and the page count is shockingly monitored remotely.
Naturally, the scheme is not advertised as a rather unusual application of DRM, but a way for customers to save time and money. Still, it would seem HP has not exactly gone out of its way to explain all the consequences to those customers.
HP's terms of service also say that these eligible, internet-connected printers can be remotely modified in several ways, including by applying patches, updates, and "changes" – without notifying customers.
Another thing HP can see thanks to the Instant Ink program is the type of documents you print, identifying them by extension as Word, etc., documents, PDFs, or JPEG and other types of images.
Additionally, the HP cartridges have been locked to specific printers for quite a while now.
Earlier on SN:
US Customers Kick Up Class-Action Stink Over Epson's Kyboshing of Third-Party Ink (2019)
Xerox Is No More (2018)
Meg Whitman Resigns (2017)
Supreme Court Lets Consumers Refill Ink Cartridges (2017)
HP to Issue "Optional Firmware Update" Allowing 3rd-Party Ink (2016)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Bot on Tuesday January 21 2020, @12:10AM (6 children)
- decades ago rms couldn't print so he launched free software.
- now the dystopic scare stories about DRM and IOT becomes real thanks to a printer.
Bravo HP. I better start learning how to drive a makeshift plotter with a raspberry, because that's the future of printing if the IoT keeps IoTing.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Tuesday January 21 2020, @01:28AM (4 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday January 21 2020, @02:44PM (2 children)
That works a lot of the time, but sometimes, you need to print something, e.g. to take the information to a place where you don't have a computer handy or a steady power supply to run said computer even if you did have it, or to have a hard copy of a legal document. And for that, you need a printer. I'd fully support efforts to create some kind of open-source open-design device that people could build at home, and while it's easier said than done it's also the fastest way to get printer companies to start behaving themselves.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 21 2020, @05:36PM (1 child)
Can 3D printers print in 2D? There are open-hardware 3D printers already.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 22 2020, @03:29AM
No, however, if you mounted a pen on the extruder, you could probably get it to write.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday January 21 2020, @06:37PM
Only until they are made illegal.
They infringe someone's patent or other exclusive rights.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by EEMac on Tuesday January 21 2020, @03:06PM
A lot of life seems to be an intelligence test.
Do you think an always-on speaker that shares your information with Google/Amazon/Apple is a good thing? Here's the device for you.
Can you figure out how to pirate movies and TV shows? If not, here's a pile of ads, plus you can pay for multiple streaming services.
Do you think inkjet printing as a service is a good idea? Why yes, we'll keep taking your money, thank you.
Sadly, my mother-in-law would love this. She's smart otherwise, but not at all tech-savvy.