Well, that didn't take long!
Last year, after Coke took 10% stake in the company, Keurig started shipping a new version of their instant coffee machines. The primary 'improvement' was the addition of DRM designed to exclude any coffee not approved by Keurig. It is a scheme very much like the ink cartridge DRM of IBM/Lexmark.
One coffee maker has decided to crack that Keurig's DRM and are now shipping a device you insert into the maker that lets you spoof it into thinking any coffee is 'authorized.' They are capitalizing on their new Freedom Clip by giving it away along with free samples of their coffee.
Related Stories
Keurig Green Mountain has been sold to JAB Holding for $13.9 billion:
The deal will make JAB the biggest player in the North American single-serve coffee pod market. "Keurig Green Mountain represents a major step forward in the creation of our global coffee platform," said JAB chairman Bart Becht, in a statement.
JAB has invested heavily in the US coffee market. It bought Caribou Coffee Co and Peet's Coffee & Tea in 2012 and formed a joint venture between coffeemakers DE Master Blenders and Mondelez International in July.
Keurig will continue to operate as an independent company after the purchase. Coca-Cola - Keurig's biggest investors- voiced its support for the deal in a statement. Coca-Cola will take a 17.4% stake in the new private company.
[...] Despite the higher cost of a single-serve coffee pod compared to a cup of filter coffee, the popularity of the machines continues to grow globally. According to Euromonitor International over the next three to five years, sales of single serve coffee pods are expected to grow by 5% in the US, 10% in Canada and 8% in Mexico. The research firm said the coffee pod business already accounts for 40% of the $15bn global coffee market.
Related: DRM: Coming to a Coffee Maker Near You
Keurig DRM Cracked By Competitors
Keurig Cup DRM Cracked
How much coffee do you drink each day?
Bruce Schneier writes in The Atlantic:
In theory, the Internet of Things—the connected network of tiny computers inside home appliances, household objects, even clothing—promises to make your life easier and your work more efficient. These computers will communicate with each other and the Internet in homes and public spaces, collecting data about their environment and making changes based on the information they receive. In theory, connected sensors will anticipate your needs, saving you time, money, and energy.
Except when the companies that make these connected objects act in a way that runs counter to the consumer's best interests...
(Score: 4, Funny) by davester666 on Monday February 02 2015, @07:18AM
That special ink is copyright'ed and patented up the wazzoo. Nobody but Keurig is permitted to even look at that ink sideways, and this company is just handing out swatches of it like Chicklets(tm).
Keurig is going to own them lock stock & barrel.
(Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Monday February 02 2015, @07:36AM
You are assuming they used the same ink.
All they needed was an ink that acted close enough to the official ink to fool the reader. If they can do that without using the patented ink they are home free. Even better if they use an ink that has already been patented by someone else, because that way they can rely on that patent for protection.
Still, the lawyers are sharpening their knives.
They have an uphill battle due to the fact that Lexmark and IBM lost their DMCA case.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Monday February 02 2015, @07:40AM
whoosh
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @08:10AM
Not his fault that you poe'd all over it. [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @08:26AM
Good. Why would I want to be subsidizing DRM manufacturers with each cup of coffee? It seems a bit insane to be trowing away a circuit every time I drink a cup while allowing a company to make money with rent seeking and an artificially restricted market. I would rather consume non "approved" coffee just to avoid endorsing this behavior.
By the way, dot matrix printers are still around, and if you do not need color, they are still the cheapest cost per page print solution out there. Their ink ribbons do not clog, nor do they have DRM.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @08:51AM
Anyone bringing up that topic should be required to include the URL of a vendor who still re-inks ribbons.
Extra points if the vendor keeps the shell, throws out the old ribbon, and puts in a new ribbon.
(There used to be a place in Las Vegas that did just that.)
Indeed, these could not be farther from DRM'd junk.
-- gewg_
(Score: 1) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @10:45AM
Actually, if you spray some CRC into a used ribbon, you can print with it again. I handed in a few University essays printed with that "ink."
(Score: 5, Funny) by c0lo on Monday February 02 2015, @12:35PM
OGHIHA (Oh God How I Hate Acronyms).
CRC:
cyclic redundancy check?
Class Name, Responsibilities, and Collaborators
Chain Reaction Cycles™?
Chicago Rabbinical Council?
Christian Reformed Church?
California Rehabilitation Center?
Candida Related Complex?
Colombo Rowing Club?
Colorectal Cancer?
Crowd Riot Control?
Corrosion Reaction Consultants?
Circumcision Resource Center?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @01:45PM
I think OP was assuming that all geekdom recognizes CRC contact cleaner the way rednecks instantly recognize WD-40.
Western Digital v40?
Wahabi Dogma 1940?
Winchester Derringer 40 cal.?
etc.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday February 02 2015, @09:15PM
I bet software and biology geeks have no clues about (without being less of a geek).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @03:59AM
Most computer geeks know the one true CRC. It does not involve a printer, unless you are printing a lovely modulo 2 arithmetic flow chart.
(Score: 5, Funny) by LoRdTAW on Monday February 02 2015, @03:27PM
I think the product he was referring to is Concentrated Rectal Cleaner. Though I could be wrong.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @03:35PM
3rd party dot matrix ribbon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GUUK3RE/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2 [amazon.com]
12 pack for $15
The manufacturer's ribbon:
http://www.amazon.com/Okidata-Microline-420-Black-Ribbon/dp/B000HRVDMA [amazon.com]
1 for $13 Still cheap compared to ink jet.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @07:59PM
Back in the day, you could usually find a local guy who had a re-inking setup and get the ribbon portion of your cartridge to last for several recharges after it was ostensibly used up.
That was both green and economical.
After the ribbon portion is badly worn/damaged, I really like the green aspect of re-using the shell/carrier (made of petrochemicals).
If that part isn't damaged, it can be re-used indefinitely.
The re-inking service doesn't have to keep a huge stock of shells either; that should make his costs lower.
I've been pretty much paperless for quite a while, but there are still operations that use NCR paper; a dot matrix printer is just the ticket for them.
...and I really despise Jeff Bezo's labor practices.
He's easily in the running for World's Worst Boss.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @02:56AM
...and I really despise Jeff Bezo's labor practices.
He's easily in the running for World's Worst Boss.
I get it. It is like the Walmart of the Internet in that regard. But it is effective, especially for quick and good research.
I thought that reinking would be like finding VCR repair shops, but it looks like there is still demand because of antique and obsolete typewriters and specialty printers:
http://www.drviragopete.com/ribbon-reinking-service.php [drviragopete.com]
Great to know that is still an option.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Foobar Bazbot on Monday February 02 2015, @06:22PM
AIUI, there's no circuit being thrown away -- the "DRM" consists of a symbol printed in fluorescent ink on the lid of the cartridge. I think there's also a bar-code involved (to specify temperature and/or time parameters for brewing that particular coffee), but it's not recognized without the special fluorescent ink. (It's been a while since I read about this, sorry)
But yeah, circuit or not, don't pay the rent-seeking Danes. (OTOH, suppose the machine is being sold at or near cost, in order to make the real money off the overpriced coffee -- then buying the Keurig machine and buying unlicensed coffee cartridges from a third party and/or buying refillable cartridges and filling them with your own ground coffee could be a win. Even better if they're selling them below cost, though that's unlikely.)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @06:35PM
(OTOH, suppose the machine is being sold at or near cost, in order to make the real money off the overpriced coffee -- then buying the Keurig machine and buying unlicensed coffee cartridges from a third party and/or buying refillable cartridges and filling them with your own ground coffee could be a win. Even better if they're selling them below cost, though that's unlikely.)
And on the other other hand.. Suppose the machine is being sold at a profit, but they are relying on morons who imagine that everything is sold below cost, Cos inkjets.. Then buying one instead of a proper coffee maker, and learning how to make a bloody cup of coffee still rewards the DRM using bastards. And makes money for a company who live off DRM just as much. And voids your warranty. should any modification be detected. You can not game DRM. If you play, you lose. You can not circumvent DRM and win indefinitely, because more DRM will be implemented, and eventually, it will be so much more work to circumvent that nobody will bother. The "but it might be subsidised, so if I get the crippled one, I'll win" argument is not a good one. The only way to win is to not participate. Buy a proper coffee machine and real coffee, drink instant, or drink something else. But please don't lie to yourself. The only thing you are sticking to "da man" is your money.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Joe Desertrat on Monday February 02 2015, @08:11PM
Get a stainless steel coffee pot that you perk on the stove. You can take that camping with you too, it works fine over coals or a camp stove. Better tasting, hotter coffee too.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Tuesday February 03 2015, @09:35AM
I've had my stove top percolator since 1992 although I did have to invest $3 in replacing the bubble. It takes some practice to learn how to make great coffee in a percolator, but once you get it down, percolated coffee fresh of the stove is wonderful. In my personal ranking, I'd put it in a cluster with my other favorites: espresso (either as americano or latte) and Bialetti brewed coffee. Percolated coffee is thinner than either of these other two and seems so right around dawn. The others I like later in the day.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @07:21PM
the "DRM" consists of a symbol printed in fluorescent ink on the lid of the cartridge
Wow. Invisible ink is now DRM? The mind boggles how stupid one has to be to believe that would hold up. Sounds like MBAs.
(Score: 2) by M. Baranczak on Tuesday February 03 2015, @01:05AM
"Overpriced coffee"? That shit would be overpriced if they gave it away.
(Score: 2) by meisterister on Tuesday February 03 2015, @12:14AM
By the way, dot matrix printers are still around, and if you do not need color, they are still the cheapest cost per page print solution out there.
Don't forget old laser printers! I can get generic or re-manufactured toner cartridges for my LaserJet 5MP, and it was a good step up from my dot matrix printer (which I still have) in terms of print quality.
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday February 03 2015, @09:46AM
Even new laser printers (B&W) are dirt cheap and toner is extremely cheap in the aftermarket. I just ordered three 8000 page toner carts for $20 each (I know I could have found a better deal if I looked harder but I didn't feel like it). That works out to a toner cost of one-fourth of one cent per page. I suppose that price is beatable, but the effort isn't really worth it. I probably average around 20c per day on toner. I might be able to get that down to 15c, and with 260 work days per year, that would still only save me a whopping $13/yr at the cost of wasting a bunch of time searching the net, signing up with yet another shopping cart that requires sign up, etc. etc. Not worth it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 04 2015, @05:14AM
The per-page cost for dot matrix printers around .15 to .2 cents ($0.0015 - $0.002 USD). The Okidata ML490 / ML491 has a 400-million character printhead life. The quality is 360 x 360 dpi because it is 24-pin. Because of the increased pin count and head durability, it is a little more expensive than most of its kind. But you can get used, refurbished, or something else. Laser has higher quality and is less noisy, although I like the nostalgia of dot matrix since I print rarely and I never hear it anywhere else. Toner has its own ills that I prefer to avoid.
(Score: 5, Informative) by NotSanguine on Monday February 02 2015, @09:03AM
From August, 2014 [theverge.com]
And from December, 2014 [treehugger.com]
Is this a new and different hack, or just someone looking to commercialize defeating the Keurig DRM?
I'm not saying this is bad, nor am I saying this is old news, but is it really even news? Or am I missing something?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Monday February 02 2015, @09:27AM
Just stick the freedom clip in Keurig's back hole...
It serves them right. The very thought of putting DRM on coffee is repugnant.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by jimshatt on Monday February 02 2015, @10:44AM
(Score: 5, Informative) by SGT CAPSLOCK on Monday February 02 2015, @01:25PM
I wish I had a twenty-year-old coffee machine! Seriously. I had one that lasted about ten years, and then it finally died.
I've been buying a new coffee machine every few months ever since. It seems like no matter how much money I spend, the build quality just never increases. Once your ancient coffee maker finally dies, I have a feeling that you'll be in the same boat as me. ;(
They don't make stuff like they used to.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tibman on Monday February 02 2015, @02:51PM
Seriously! I have an ancient and terrible plastic machine that very audibly wheezes and coughs when brewing. It was probably trash tier back in the 90's. Tried to replace it twice with a new one but the new ones only last a few seasons of use. The new ones look nice though. Finally went to french press and haven't gone back. That old machine is tucked away in a cupboard though, just in case.
I hope you find a good replacement!
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 4, Informative) by tathra on Monday February 02 2015, @04:14PM
just get an aeropress or a french press. they're a little bit more work, but you never have to worry about them breaking down. plus you can take them anywhere with little effort; so long as there's hot water, there's coffee.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @04:02AM
my french press broke down in my sink. Ymmv (3rd one is about 2000 uses in)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @11:46AM
All the MBA's I ever worked with seemed to think all you need to do to force one's will on someone else is to snuggle up to a Congressman and have him pass some law he penned.
And all the engineers I have ever worked with would take something like this and hack it. It looks like a little scotch tape, a pair of scissors, and ONE "approved" lid would be all it takes to defeat this so-called "DRM".
The only explanation I have for Keurig releasing this is that they laid off their engineers after they got a marketable design.
Now, they will have to raise the price of their coffee again... lawyers do not come as cheap as engineers.
But all is not lost. Executive suites are full of one-percenters and really do not need to be all that effective on design work at that level... their forte seems more in how to control others... and I hear lawyers, paid like gentlemen, give damned hearty handshakes to those paying them.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Covalent on Monday February 02 2015, @01:00PM
...you could just use this instead: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/12/24/191214 [soylentnews.org]
I said it before and it works here, too: it's just like the inkjet printer model (i.e. it doesn't work). When will they learn?
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: 2, Informative) by tizan on Monday February 02 2015, @03:14PM
I really do not see the good thing in Keurig cups...grinding fresh coffee is so much better tasting.
(Score: 3, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @03:45PM
Sounds like you haven't actually had k-cup coffee. The entire point of the system is that the coffee is ground at the best possible point in terms of ripeness and then vacuum sealed so that what you get is effectively fresh ground coffee.
(Score: 3, Informative) by hemocyanin on Monday February 02 2015, @06:11PM
I've had it at my dentist's office. It was nothing special at all and there are several other preparation methods I prefer, all of which use no DRM. Now, if you like K-Cup coffee the best, then have at it. Taste is a highly subjective matter.
So, _my_ subjective sense is that if you really want the best quality, you have to find a skilled local roaster and buy small quantities of whole beans. As for the vacuum sealing thing, Folgers is vacuum sealed, it's just the can sizes are different. Yuban *shudder* is vacuum sealed too. Vacuum sealing is basically for mass produced industrial coffee because without it, the coffee would be even worse. It is only clever marketing that makes people think it is a sign of taste quality rather than a sign of manufacturing quality.
Also, I would note that "ripeness" is not the right term because coffee is roasted.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @07:41PM
> As for the vacuum sealing thing, Folgers is vacuum sealed, it's just the can sizes are different.
That's like saying a bicycle and a cat 797 [landofmachines.com] are basically the same, it's just the tire sizes are different.
> Also, I would note that "ripeness" is not the right term because coffee is roasted.
I grew up in a coffee growing region and I can assure you that roasting immature beans makes for shit coffee.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Monday February 02 2015, @11:30PM
I should have said this: Folgers must be vaccum sealed because it is produced on an industrial scale, and without the technique, it would be even worse. The fact that K-cups are vacuum sealed is a sign not of subjective quality, but of manufacturing standards employed to offset the quality damage caused by the mass manufacturing process. In this context vacuum sealing is a positive thing, but that doesn't mean the coffee is good. For example, chicken nuggets are processed, stored, and cooked in ways to minimize spoilage. That doesn't mean chicken nuggets taste as good as a fresh roasted chicken made at home even though the fresh chicken is not pumped full of various things, flash frozen, nor stored at 0C.
As for unripe beans, I have no doubt you are right, but I would be surprised if unripe beans are intentionally exported to the US. Unripe beans if used in coffee in America, are most probably to found in industrial coffee production because of the massive amount of coffee processed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @03:42AM
> The fact that K-cups are vacuum sealed is a sign not of subjective quality
I never said vacuum sealing was an indicator of quality, merely that it was a means of preserving the quality of beans that have been ground at the most optimal time for the intended desired taste. Similar to the way vegetables are picked at the most optimal time for nutritional content and then flash frozen to preserve that state. K-cups are a significant increase in both taste and convenience compared to all prior technologies. If you want even better taste than a good k-cup then you have to put in a lot more effort, a lot. See the guy who got +5 touche upthread.
> I would be surprised if unripe beans are intentionally exported to the US.
Geeze what is it with geeks and binary thinking? There are varying degrees of ripeness, in fact you can select for different tastes by choosing to roast beans at different levels of ripeness. Franky I don't give a fuck about your ignorance anymore. say whatever you want in return, arguing with someone who is deliberately obtuse is just too draining
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday February 03 2015, @09:23AM
I'm skeptical. Tomatoes for instance are picked green -- they are much easier to handle being much harder to bruise, easier to store, easier to ship. Of course they end up tasting like cardboard compared to the ones picked from your own garden. I would suspect that many vegetables aren't actually picked at the peak of anything except ease of processing. Food is an industrial process.
As for the ripeness, I can see that for artisan coffees, like the type where the beans are processed inside a bird's digestive system and then collected once the bird ... expels ... them ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak [wikipedia.org] ) -- it is said the bird, a civet, only picks the perfectly ripe cherries -- but I would be totally shocked if Keurig was sending reps to coffee producers and telling them "we want a blend of 50% a day before ripe, 25% a day after, and 25% close to rotten." At that scale, they're just looking for coffee that is made from mostly ripe beans.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday February 03 2015, @09:58AM
sorry, not a bird, a mammal. I need some coffee or maybe to just go to bed.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @05:08PM
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @06:55PM
I feed my coffee beans to my pet weasel and harvest them out of his litter box when I want a cup. Beats those poor suckers who are always running down to the local roasters to buy theirs by the serving.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 02 2015, @10:18PM
The little bugger has saved me a decent amount of money.
I do not drink coffee however my wife does. So she would make about 4-6 cups of fresh ground coffee. She would drink one and the rest would go to waste as by the time she was done the rest was cold or tasted odd.
Per cup it is more expensive. But she was making 4-6 per brew. She still gets her fresh ground (you can get single reusable cups). And she can do whatever spice blends she likes.
At that point the thing is faster with less waste and you get the same effect.
I still have no need for the thing...