this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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301
HP Inc settles printer toner lockout lawsuit with a promise to make firmware updates optional (www.theregister.com)
submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

As someone who's worked on printer firmware before, it makes me really sad that a company can get away with making a consumer decide between getting access to any of the actually useful changes that engineers — who have no say over ink cartridge policy — put effort towards making the best product they could, or not having said ink cartridge policies forced on them.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Simple fix here, stop buying the companies that do this. I bought a brother printer and I won’t go back.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

This was in the related articles: https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/printers/brother-denies-firmware-blocks-third-party-toner-and-ink-use

And I believe them. The reddit post in Rossman's video was 3 years old. I have personally installed and updated 5 Brother printers in the last year and they all still run on 3rd-party toner.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I do think it's pretty ridiculous that rossman of all people would not verify any of this before making a video about it. At least reach out to the company and ask them for a comment.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Thanks for added context!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That sucks, I bought mine a few years ago and haven’t had any issues yet. 🤞

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

I bought a 15 year old second-hand Brother laser printer - works like a charm, operates under both Windows and Linux, still has all the spare parts you can think of readily available, and you can just load any toner into the official cartridge to use it again, and again, and again.

Love it. Simple, dirt cheap, just works and does it well.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Sometimes I wonder why there's no DIY Paper printer after seeing so...much shit in Printer Company ?
We had advance DIY 3D Printer that can made various objects with various size and materials and yet there's no DIY Paper printer until now

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

It's not really surprising. The demand for printers has fallen off a cliff due to wide acceptance of digital alternatives. People barely need printers now and as such aren't willing to pay much for them.

This is further exacerbated by the reality that a printer is actually a fairly high precision device and expensive to manufacture.

So you have an expensive to manufacture device that consumers aren't willing to pay much for. So what happens? They adopt a consumable based business with the printers being locked down to force you to buy their overpriced, high margin consumables that have a low absolute price so consumers don't think about it much.

Let's say that we regulate away this lock in. What will happen? Well the price of printers would have to climb to match their actual cost to manufacture. That price would likely turn off consumers from buying them at all. The end result would be the end of the printer business altogether. Maybe not a bad thing as not printing at all is likely a better ecological outcome.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Impressive...sadly it produce low quality print, but it's good to see somebody actually made DIY Paper printer

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Bullshittery aside, "HP Inc." Instead of just "HP" Is on the nose and has to be deliberate on the journalists behalf

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The actual reason is because in 2015 "Hewlett Packard" split into two companies, one called HP, Inc, and one called HP Enterprise. The print and consumer PC business went to HPI, while the server and network hardware went to HPE. So, writing just "HP" could be interpreted as ambiguous.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Still not interested in a fucking printer.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

"Settles" lol the lawyers got their payout

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I've never interpreted settling to imply lawyers don't get paid.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Lawyers get paid either way, but that's about the most that comes of it. Settling means no legal precedent has been set, so businesses can pull this bullshit again in the future

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I have an epson eco tank. No more ink cartridges.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Ink jets are trash tho

Laser or nothing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You're probably right, but I'm just printing random documents on occasion.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Right but that’s all the more reason that ink jets are trash.

The ink heads dry out. The ink cartridges also dry out. So if you’re not using the printer a lot then those things tend to dry out forcing you to swap them, otherwise when you print there will be areas where the ink didn’t apply all the way. If you don’t have these problems you will eventually.

Lasers do not have this problem. You could print once every 5 years and each time the print will be perfect without any problems. You’ll only need to change the toner cartridge once it is completely used up. It won’t dry out on you making you prematurely replace it.

Ink jets are cheap but you get exactly what you pay for.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I don't have cartridges and I've had no issue with the ink heads in the years I've had the printer.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What about printing head replacement?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

From my experience, those last years. But they are indeed a bit expensive... I have had my eco tank for the last 5 years, only had to replace the b/w printer head after around 4 thousand prints, and I'm almost sure it was my own fault for using expired low-quality ink that I had bought in bulk for super cheap.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

That is a good number

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Oh BROTHER, not this again.

On a more serious note, I've been all about brother printers for a few years now and couldn't be happier.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They apparently restricted 3rd party ink now too.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You got a source? Everyone else says it was debunked.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Oh didn’t hear it was debunked. Cool to know!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I've been rockin my HL3170CDW for many years now. I have absolutely no issues with this printer, and I'll buy nothing else.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

My current brother printer is a pile of shit.

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