HP’s DRM Sabotages Off-Brand Printer Ink Cartridges With Self-Destruct Date

Last week, its printers notified thousands of owners of HP Inc. printers that their ink cartridges were "damaged" and had to be replaced. The reason, according to an HP statement, was a firmware update aimed at "protecting HP's innovations and intellectual property." But some users report that even HP's own cartridges failed on their printers, and that they could not get the printer to respond to remove the offensive ink.

"I turn it on, he complains about a damaged cartridge, so I open the front door to replace it." An HP OfficeJet user complained. "When I open the door, the car does NOT move, and the error message now says to close the door to print, I close the door and return the error message of the damaged original cartridge."

The change in firmware was triggered early last week, with a wave of complaints that affected companies that sold "private-label" ink and HP cartridges refilled on September 13. According to Myce, the Dutch ink cartridge retailer 123inkt.nl investigated the problem with the cartridges sold by the company and the manufacturer of the chip used in their ink cartridges told him that the problems were worldwide, and the manufacturer already I was producing new chips to avoid the firmware.

HP's decision to sabotage third-party cartridges and recycled cartridges with replaced chips is much more than protecting "innovation": printing ink is one of the company's biggest profit centers. In the past, HP came to pay retailers for not carrying third-party ink cartridges. But the business of printers is shrinking as fewer and fewer people print hard copies; HP printer shipments for the first half of this year have declined more than 16 percent over the same period last year. The recent takeover bid of $ 1.05 billion for the Samsung printer business is, in any case, an effort to eliminate an opponent and shore up the HP ink cash cow.