Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Epson is facing a class-action suit from disgruntled US punters sick of being told what sort of ink cartridges to put in their machines.
Of course it is a cliché of printers that they send dismal warnings of imminent destruction if owners dare to go with cartridges bought from anywhere but the machine's manufacturer.
But the US case (PDF here) alleges that Epson went further with firmware updates that detected third-party ink in printers and simply disabled them. The suit claims the unofficial cartridges work perfectly well in machines that have not been updated.
It complains that Epson never warned users that installing the firmware would remove their ability to use third-party cartridges.
The case names complainants who own Epson WorkForce WF-3640 All-in-One Printer or an Epson XP-830 Small-in-One® printer.
[...] Epson refused to comment.
Related Stories
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: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 24 2019, @02:36PM (3 children)
The word is “kibosh,” you yutz.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Thursday October 24 2019, @02:54PM
awl wrrds ar iz yor brane may king sownds n-syde in e-waze
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 24 2019, @03:43PM (1 child)
Just because that's not how you spell it doesn't mean it's wrong.
Grammarist.com [grammarist.com]:
In any event, the noun appears almost exclusively in the phrase put the kibosh on, which means put a stop to. Kybosh is an accepted but rarely used alternative spelling.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday October 24 2019, @09:03PM
Either way, we are kitbashing language.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 24 2019, @02:54PM (8 children)
I missed my ration of blood and gore yesterday when I ate an impossible burger. I can make up for it by demanding Epson's head on a platter. On second thought, no platter needed.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Thursday October 24 2019, @04:04PM (1 child)
I'm fresh out of blood, but I can offer you some red ink instead...
(Score: 3, Funny) by darkfeline on Thursday October 24 2019, @08:46PM
I'm pretty sure red ink is more expensive than blood. As in, it's cheaper to use blood than red ink in your Epson printer.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Thursday October 24 2019, @04:11PM (3 children)
The impossible burger is pretty tasty. If going vegetarian meant more companies getting sued for stuff like this too, I would make that sacrifice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 25 2019, @02:56AM (2 children)
Ok, how do they get away calling them ham burgers, when there's no pork in it?
While it can't be called a milk shake if there's no milk in it. But they can call it a shake, or a burger.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Friday October 25 2019, @07:32AM (1 child)
Hamburgers are named after the German city of Hamburg, from which came a well known recipe for a minced meat patty.
In much the same way, a Berliner is a style of deep-fried dough ball ( a dough-nut ).
A Philly steak sandwich is named for the city of Philadelphia, so the idea of naming a particular dish after a place where it is popular is not unusual.
(Score: 2) by Muad'Dave on Friday October 25 2019, @12:54PM
I am a jelly donut! [snopes.com]. Too bad it's false - it makes a great story.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday October 25 2019, @02:08AM (1 child)
You didn't miss your ration: https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_596,c_limit,q_auto:best,f_auto/wp-cms/uploads/2018/11/13-inside-the-lab-where-impossible-foods-makes-its.jpg [fastcompany.net]
https://www.fastcompany.com/90264450/inside-the-lab-where-impossible-foods-makes-its-plant-based-blood [fastcompany.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday October 25 2019, @02:29AM
So, we can expect practitioners of black magic to convert to this heme? LOL!!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 24 2019, @03:07PM (7 children)
Lexmark are the ones that came up with this scam and actually tried to make third party cartridges illegal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexmark_International,_Inc._v._Static_Control_Components,_Inc. [wikipedia.org] This is equivalent to car manufacturers requiring you to use their brand of gasoline, and should be smacked down just as hard.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by legont on Thursday October 24 2019, @03:49PM (5 children)
coming to an electric fuel station near you...
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 24 2019, @06:50PM (3 children)
This does scare me. Is there a standard in place or being planned to ensure all cars can charge at all chargers? If not, it will such when electric really starts to replace gas.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday October 24 2019, @09:15PM (2 children)
It looks like there is some kind of standard that combines all the plugs together into a couple of standards. (Depending if AC charging is supported, I guess.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_Charging_System [wikipedia.org]
It says even Tesla is on board with this. But I would be surprised if you could charge a non-Tesla car at a Tesla charging station even if the plugs are the same.
While I doubt this prevents someone from intentionally making an incompatible plug ala-Apple, it would make cars incompatible with existing charging networks making them vastly less attractive.
Ok, after reading this [thedriven.io], my answer is "who the fuck knows?"
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday October 25 2019, @05:18AM (1 child)
The plug issue is a very minor one. Even phones check if they are connected to a friendly charger.
On a separate but similar note, most people do not realize how difficult it is to make shit a commodity. Oil is not the same and refineries have to be built for a specific supplier. Even more so for iron and coal ores. For example, Ukraine, if separated from Russia, can't be technologically integrated into the EU. Nothing will work and they will have to eat their pride and go back begging.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Friday October 25 2019, @07:36AM
Ukraine can be integrated into tge EU, as several eastern bloc countries already have been, such as Poland, The Czech Republic, Slovskia, and Slovenia. It just tskes money and time. The EU is well known for providing funds for integration.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 24 2019, @08:00PM
Be sure to use Tesla Brand Electricity... only Telsa Brand guarantees that each electron has been individually excited by Elon!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 24 2019, @09:37PM
Isn't that an anti trust violation (tacking)?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 24 2019, @09:30PM (1 child)
They also have a counter in the printer that just stops printing after a set ammount.
You need to pay an authorized dealer 20 dollars to reset it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 25 2019, @03:03AM
It's shit like this that keeps me on the anti copyright, anti patent bandwagon, and will provide a very strong incentive for my vote should someone run on a bandwagon of some serious DMCA reform.