Epson 'Security Update' Bricks Third-Party Ink Refills, Opens Up Possibility Of A Competitive Trades Investigation
from the nice-work,-jackasses dept
It's no secret the printer business relies on hefty ink refill markups. The printers are disposable, often cheaper than the ink they come packaged with. But customers aren't usually willing to toss out a printer when it runs out of ink, even if refilling it costs more than replacing it.
And good for them! I mean, at least in an environmental sense. Let's not toss a bunch more non-decomposables into the nearest landfill the moment they refuse do anything until their inkwells are filled. But this does nothing for consumers, forcing them to become unwilling adherents to the sunk cost fallacy, especially after they've paid for a couple of ink refills.
Printer companies know their system is ripoff. They know their customers know it's a ripoff. That's why they engage in shady tactics to ensure this steady stream of revenue doesn't dry up. For years, third parties have offered compatible ink refills. And for years, printer companies have been lying to customers to lock these competitors out of the market.
A couple of years back, HP pushed out a firmware update that made it impossible to use third-party refills. It didn't tell customers the update would do this. It just sent out the DRMbomb and triggered it remotely, saying things about "security" and "protecting customers," even as it eliminated their refill options.
Now, Epson has been caught doing the same thing. Cory Doctorow, writing for the EFF, says an EFF fan spotted the firmware update's refill-bricking capabilities.
[I]n late 2016 or early 2017, Epson started sending deceptive updates to many of its printers. Just like HP, Epson disguised these updates as routine software improvements, when really they were poison pills, designed to downgrade printers so they could only work with Epson's expensive ink systems.
EFF found out about this thanks to an eagle-eyed supporter in Texas, and we've taken the step of alerting the Texas Attorney General's office about the many Texas statutes Epson's behavior may violate. If you're in another state and had a similar experience with your Epson printer, please get in touch.
The last touch is nice. This isn't just a warning about printer company tactics. It's an actual complaint, made to a government authority, about deceptive tactics being deployed by printer companies.
The problem is deeper than simply screwing customers out of cheaper ink options. Sending out feature-crippling firmware under the guise of "security updates" just teaches customers to distrust updates. And this is something consumers can't afford. The NSA-powered ransomware deployed by malicious hackers targeted unpatched hardware and software. When a company tells you it's making its product more secure, but is really doing nothing more than making your purchased product more worthless, it encourages customers to steer clear of recommended updates, even if those might patch vulnerabilities that could be exploited by criminals and state-sponsored hackers.
Then there's the part the Texas AG might be more concerned with: the artificial restriction of competition through deceptively-portrayed firmware updates. There may be violations of actual laws at play here, both in the deception and the anti-competitive practices. Violating the customers' trust may result in reputational damage. An investigation into Epson's business practices -- as is encouraged by the EFF's letter [PDF] -- may result in the loss of something companies find far more valuable than the trust of their customers: actual money.
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Filed Under: 3rd party ink, competition, inkjet, security update, texas
Companies: epson
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I doubt printer manufacturers advertise that you can use third-party ink/toner for their printers.
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Let's hope we can do more with the government complaints as we see future firmware/software hobbling of semi-useful devices though. Inkjet technology had some really great possibilities back in the day, but I could see the writing on the wall with Lexmark.
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LG JUST WENT THRU THIS..
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Re: LG JUST WENT THRU THIS..
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Re: Re: LG JUST WENT THRU THIS..
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But it DOES make the product more secure...for the company, not for you.
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Re: Re: Re: LG JUST WENT THRU THIS..
Does it matter? Third-party refills are third-party refills, whether the ink is supposedly drinkable or not.
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It seems he was right. Apple, printer manufacturers and others have been caught doing this.
A really stupid, short sighted thing to do - it's really not a good idea to convince people that updates might be downgrades or poison pills.
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This is why...
...I just chunked my Epson inkjet printer in the trash. I got a couple of good years out of it, but they're not getting another penny out of me. I bought some 3rd party ink off of Amazon with reviews saying that they would work, but my printer refused to take them (now I know why). I bought an inexpensive Brother laser printer that works great, and I will never spend another dime on anything made by Epson. They lost my business, and I will tell everyone I know to stay away from their products.
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They CANNOT do as you suggest. It is illegal. They can RECOMMEND it but they cannot force you to.
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OfficeJet Pro 8715??? Took mine back to Costco the other day. Unfortunately all they have are HPs but at least the replacement was $60 off at the time. I will NOT be updating my firmware. I will likely buy a monochrome laser printer. However, not from Epson or HP due to their shady, deceptive, malicious, greedy, thieving, backhanded tactics such as the ones described in this article.
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It's funny you should sat that...
I wrote the exact same thing, almost verbatim, about lining the CEOs (HP/Epson) year-end bonus/pockets instead of my kids savings accounts and the security enhancement securing the stockholders happiness, only.
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Re: Re: LG JUST WENT THRU THIS..
Don't get me started on Keurig. Urgggh. They were happy that my K50 quit working. Literally. So I bought the competitor Hamilton Beach or something. The wife loves it and I didn't reward Keurig for their bad behavior towards me.
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Re: This is why...
HP is worse. They recently paid out on a class-action claim for this. Then they turned right around and did it again. I for hung up on by the first Filipino tech support guy for them after they forced the firmware update in me, rightfully so - I confess.
But I called back a few times and ultimately demanded a supervisor that said 3rd party cartridges had a "50% chance of working"... I pressed him on that, seeing as how I learned i college to always check sources and question statistics (Applied Psych). After I pressed him a little bit, he confessed that 0% of the third party cartridges will work. Which is actually wrong, I got a package of two black 952xls delivered from ebay, I think it was. The 1st failed, the second actually worked. However, the Yellow and the Cyan had run out (printer mixed them to produce black when I was out of black. So they ran out and my 8715 OfficeJet pro quit working until I bought even those colored ones directly from HP. I have that entire conversation legally recorded too.
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