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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, Informative) by Fnord666 on Tuesday January 21 2020, @02:24AM (1 child)
HP Instant Ink is a subscription service that this guy explicitly signed up for at some point. As part of that service, he agreed to let HP monitor the number of pages he printed, etc. When ink gets low, HP will send him a new ink supply contained in cartridges. These cartridges are supplied as part of the subscription service and are merely the vehicle used to transport the ink. They are also the mechanism used to enforce the agreement.
When you cancel the service the printer stops using the ink (i.e. printing) in those cartridges. In fact, as part of the subscription agreement, he was supposed to return the unused ink by returning the cartridges to HP when he cancelled his subscription.
What doesn't seem to be mentioned is that the printer itself is not disabled at all. Mr. Twit is free to go out to Staples and buy, at his own cost, the ink cartridges that his printer uses and it will work just fine.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday January 21 2020, @02:46AM
Can be quite a bit of work [inkbank.com.au]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex