SOURCE

“Innovation” has become a curse word, thanks to…innovation. Some of the world’s most imaginative, best-funded sociopaths have spent decades innovating ways to fuck you over. While the whole tech sector likes to get in on this game, no one “innovates” like inkjet printer companies.

Printer companies are true fuckery pioneers: the tactical innovations they’ve developed in the war on their customers would make Otto von Bismarck blush.

Selling printers with half-empty ink-cartridges:

Requiring useless, mandatory “calibration tests” that use up all your ink:

Or just having printers reject partially full cartridges as empty.

When you’re at war with your customers, you have to anticipate that your rivals will join your customers’ side — not because other businesses are paragons of consumer protection, but because it’s profitable. So printer companies tried to use copyright to block ink refillers:

Then patent law:

When that got stale, they figured out how to put DRM in paper, too:

If we could harness the creative energy put into turning printer users into ink-stained wretches, we could end the world’s reliance on Russian gas in an instant:

Here’s a good one! Epson will brick your printer after you’ve run a certain number of pages, “for your own good.”

How does that work? Well, Epson says that it designs its printers with little internal sponges that soak up excess ink and when they become saturated, that ink might run out of the bottom of your printer and stain your furniture.

If this sounds like bullshit to you, that’s because it’s bullshit, as are the claims that excess ink could get into the printer’s electronic circuits and start a fire:

If your printer’s sponges get too full of excess ink and you’re worried about it, you can easily and cheaply install new sponges:

But that would deny Epson a new printer sale, and divert your perfectly good printer from joining the mountains of e-waste that are poisoning the global south, and we couldn’t have that.

So they’ve rigged their printers’ software so that even if you replace the sponges, the printer can still refuse to print. Replacing or resetting this software requires that you bypass the DRM designed to prevent this, and providing a DRM-defeat tool is a felony punishable by a 5-year sentence and a $500k fine under Section 1201 of the DMCA.

But maybe this is a violation of consumer protection laws. Aaron Perzanowski thinks so, and he’s a law professor. If the FTC were to go after Epson on this, they would be genuine American heroes, celebrated as true guardians of the public interest.

Previously, the FTC resolved this kind of self-bricking fraud by ordering companies to disclose the practice at the time of purchase. This is not good enough.

A real remedy — one that would prevent this conduct in future — would be a ban on self-bricking devices altogether, along with immunity from civil and criminal liability for companies and individuals who design defeat devices to unbrick illegally bricked gadgets, under patent, copyright, contract, and all other legal theories.

EFF/Hugh D’Andrade



https://www.eff.org/copyright

Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist, and blogger. He has a podcast, a newsletter, a Twitter feed, a Mastodon feed, and a Tumblr feed. He was born in Canada, became a British citizen and now lives in Burbank, California. His latest nonfiction book is How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism. His latest novel for adults is Attack Surface. His latest short story collection is Radicalized. His latest picture book is Poesy the Monster Slayer. His latest YA novel is Pirate Cinema. His latest graphic novel is In Real Life. His forthcoming books include The Shakedown (with Rebecca Giblin), a book about artistic labor market and excessive buyer power; Red Team Blues, a noir thriller about cryptocurrency, corruption and money-laundering (Tor, 2023); and The Lost Cause, a utopian post-GND novel about truth and reconciliation with white nationalist militias (Tor, 2023).

Ashley Toro
Ashley Toro
2023-04-24
Jeff has always been efficient with time and his work. I feel good and confident knowing that when I have a tech issue, it'll be resolved working with Jeff. Thank you!
Robert Kast
Robert Kast
2023-04-24
I'm seventy five years old and my knowledge of computers could be written on the head of a pin. Mr. Jeff is one of the nicest and patient, and knowledgeable people I've ever had the pleasure of working with. The man is a genius and dare I say saint of computer programming. Don't hesitate to call him. He's the best.
Don Wilson
Don Wilson
2023-04-17
I was trying to get my Outlook Calendar on my laptop and my Apple Calendar on my iPhone to sync. I was frustrated and ready to pull my hair out.Jeff worked through the problem and got it working again - yay! He also helped me with several other issues that I was having for no additional charge.Jeff was great - I highly recommend him. Don't hesitate to use him or be afraid to let him help you remotely!
Carmen Ritz
Carmen Ritz
2023-04-12
Thank you Jeff. It's difficult to find someone who will do a good job, that you can trust and be great to work with. He fixed my computer, that I someone else said they had fixed, but had not done a good job. He responded very quickly, flexible to schedule, easy to communicate with, answers questions and gets the job done. Simple, easy and he doesn't charge enough. LOL!
Barry Kaufman
Barry Kaufman
2023-03-31
I highly recommend That Tech Jeff to help you fix and eliminate computer problems. He has been a big help to me. He can help you remotely no matter where you live as long as you have an internet connection. Besides being very knowledgeable about computers, he has been very polite and patient when interacting with me. I have peace of mind knowing Jeff is there when I need his help.
Bruce Reuter
Bruce Reuter
2023-03-23
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Sue Carberry
Sue Carberry
2023-03-21
Very Knowledgeable. Nice. Polite. Generous. Super easy to work with , and super patient!
Thomas Jakuc
Thomas Jakuc
2023-03-16
Excellent tech, knows what he is doing! I would recommend him highly to figure out what is wrong with your computer!!!!
Paul Smith
Paul Smith
2023-03-11
Jeff is really, really helpful, gives personal attention and knows what he is doing. You can trust him to clean up your computer. You won't go wrong with Jeff.