HP Sabotages Third-Party Printer Cartridges

[SteelCrysis]

http://www.myce.com/news/hp-pre-programm...ers-80457/
HP admits it: http://www.myce.com/news/hp-officially-r...ges-80467/

[RolloTheGreat]

http://www.myce.com/news/hp-pre-programm...ers-80457/
HP admits it: http://www.myce.com/news/hp-officially-r...ges-80467/

Interesting. I just bought a HP laser printer, was surprised it did a "Verify Genuine HP Toner online check.

[SickBeast]

Brother printers are the best IMO.

[SteelCrysis]

Brother printers are the best IMO.

No kidding.

[dmcowen674]

This Corporate crap really gets under my skin.

[RolloTheGreat]

This Corporate crap really gets under my skin.

This "corporate crap" keeps you, me, and everyone else alive and society functioning. You should head to a banana republic and check out the "great" lifestyles in the absence of this "corporate crap".

[SteelCrysis]

Retailer who discovered the sabotage plans to take action against HP: http://www.myce.com/news/online-retailer...ges-80484/

[SteelCrysis]

HP hesitantly backs off from its sabotage: https://www.neowin.net/news/hp-apologize...es-for-now

[SteelCrysis]

And HP is at it again: https://www.techpowerup.com/237048/been-...cartridges

[SteelCrysis]

https://www.extremetech.com/electronics/...cartridges

HP does still offer a printer driver that doesn’t activate this lockout. But it’s a manual download you can grab, rather than one the company is pushing. I have to admit, it’s a clever workaround. Instead of giving anyone the freedom to use printer ink they select themselves, HP locks you out of the device by default, then gives technically proficient users the option to sneak back in. Of course, you’re not meant to know that — and HP is well aware that most office managers will just buy more ink. If they can’t get ink to work properly from a third-party, they’ll purchase it elsewhere. Especially in this day and age, when most printers offer plug-in-and-it-works functionality, people aren’t likely to think of a print driver as containing a DRM scheme or the means to bypass one.

There’s a huge range of affected models, though all appear to be OfficeJet Pro printers. HP has published instructions for its driver update method, available here. If your system has already been locked out by the firmware update, the newer driver may be your only option. We recommend blocking any automatic update feature baked into your printer, to avoid this happening in the future.

Alternately, you may want to consider another printer company altogether. HP clearly isn’t going to back down from this kind of lockout, and the company isn’t going to stop pushing DRM solutions, either. There may be a driver available now, but don’t be surprised if that download gets “deprecated” at some point, or simply isn’t updated to support newer printers.

[SteelCrysis]

The above ET link has been updated with HP's denial that they released a new firmware to do this.