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posted by martyb on Monday January 20 2020, @11:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the who-owns-what dept.

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)


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Tuesday January 21 2020, @02:03AM (7 children)

    by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday January 21 2020, @02:03AM (#946119)

    I see it as an extension of software as a subscription. Slowly but surely they're expanding the monthly fees for everything, now into hardware.

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 21 2020, @04:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 21 2020, @04:08AM (#946162)

    It's called business innovation, and the MBAs are getting massive bonuses for it.

  • (Score: 2) by Chocolate on Tuesday January 21 2020, @08:16AM (2 children)

    by Chocolate (8044) on Tuesday January 21 2020, @08:16AM (#946233) Journal

    How will Microsoft continue to pay their quality software developers if they don't source new income streams?

    --
    Bit-choco-coin anyone?
    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by RS3 on Tuesday January 21 2020, @02:48PM (1 child)

      by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday January 21 2020, @02:48PM (#946345)

      You mean how will the world continue to subsidize H1B and offshore workers?

      The irony of my statement is that I commented more strongly on this HP ink situation on a certain green site and I got at least 2 accusations of being a "communist".

      Yet on same sites are stories about how capitalism taken to extremes, devolves into feudalism (which I've understood to be the case most of my life). I'm anything but a communist. I did poorly in history and political science in school, but the older I get, the more I learn and understand why societies and governments make the laws and rules they do- it's called "big picture thinking".

      I had more to write but no time...

      • (Score: 2) by Chocolate on Wednesday January 22 2020, @02:21AM

        by Chocolate (8044) on Wednesday January 22 2020, @02:21AM (#946628) Journal

        Atlassian blasted the government for not increasing the immigration cap for IT workers while celebrating the resounding success of their globally distributed agile workforce. Go figure.

        --
        Bit-choco-coin anyone?
  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday January 21 2020, @05:54PM (2 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 21 2020, @05:54PM (#946443) Journal

    Who would have dreamed such a thing of the HP of old.

    How about HP charges your based on the number of calculations you do on your calculator?

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday January 21 2020, @07:26PM (1 child)

      by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday January 21 2020, @07:26PM (#946488)

      > "Who would have dreamed such a thing of the HP of old."

      You're referring to the pre-MBA days, when techs did tech. I guess someone dreamed of it.

      > "How about HP charges your based on the number of calculations you do on your calculator?"

      Shhhh!! Don't give them ideas! Maybe quick patent that.

      To be fair, it is an age-old concept- give away the razor and sell the blades. And printer companies have been doing this for years, with ink advertising often embedded in the printer software and even the Windows drivers.

      However, they've crossed into the "you don't own your software, you lease it" territory. Okay, you own the physical printer, but you lease the right to use the software that runs it.

      • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday January 21 2020, @07:30PM

        by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday January 21 2020, @07:30PM (#946495)

        Adding, it would be awesome if someone made alternate free software/firmware for the printer. I'm sure it would violate some HP TOS / license / whatever, but I'd argue "right to repair".