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- Tankdog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well its about time. Our streets will now be safer. Now all we need is a website that lists the name, and last known location of these offenders so we could keep our printers and ink cartridges safe.
-Sarcasm - TwoSlick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't know why people so easily freak out about this stuff. If company X wants to gouge you and screw over its customers, then there's no stopping those customers from going to company Y who gets the message and caters to the customer's needs. When I had the choice to buy a new printer recently, I specifically chose to avoid Lexmark for this very reason. They lost out on my money for these practices, and they will never get another cent from me as long as they use this business practice. Hopefully they will eventually learn, but we'll see.
- kungfustickman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"It makes it illegal for you to start a company that all they do is refill lexmark cartridges." Yes but then what are you going to do? Buy more ink from the same company and then refil it? Face it they're damn greedy.
- gorkon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think this digg is really misconstrued as it was on Slashdot. I don't think this make it illegal for YOU to refill your cartridge. It makes it illegal for you to start a company that all they do is refill lexmark cartridges.
- yob1can, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You know they are getting greedy when. Its bad enough that these guys are gouging us for years as it is... but wait whats next if I buy a bottle of water (insert any brand name hear) and I drink it walk up to a water fountain and refill it what am I infringing on that companies patent of their water bottle design and label. Give me a break fair use says that if I buy a product I have paid to use it in any way I see fit. If they have a problem that some one else is making money off refills then offer the consumer and option through them. You know you look at all the waste that is created now a days, someone with a good idea to not send every cartridge to the landfill and create more waste then these bastards wanna MAKE you buy more of their products to throw out. UNREAL. I for one will continue to refill my bottles.
- Jammerdelray, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1it's like "whatever"....I think they are mostly talking about refilling them and reselling...that I can understand...but if I wanna refill it for my own use it's not against the law....just like refilling a bic pen so to speak....it's just a scheme so they can trap you into buying new ones.
- Ratteler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Buy a color Laser and ***** the Injets.
If you're like me you don't make prints every day. My biggest problem with Inkjets was that no matter what the brand was, by the time I needed to print something, the ink cartridge had run up. Since I don't print a lot it was costing me $35-$75 dollars evertime I wanted to print about 10-25 pages. I also print a lot of full page graphics when I print. At that rate my cost per page was about $2.03 a page. Or $3050 total cost for 1500 pages.
Finnally I said "***** this". After some research I got a Minolta QMS 2300DL. It cost me about $700 with shipping at the time caompared to some $50 inkjets available at the time. People thought I was crazy.
The print quality was about a 1000 time better that anything I had before, my print speed increased, but best of all.... my cost pr page dropped to about $.46 a page based on 1500 pages.
The news get's better when my color toner finnally does run out. Sure $450 for 4 new high quality toner cartridges is a tough knot of cash to come up with. But over the life of the printer my cost drops to $0.19 per page vs. the same $2.00 a page for the inkjet. Or.....
$1150 total investment for Larer vs. $12,050 total cost for the same 6000 pages from an inkjet.
Plus there is the psychological benefit. I used to have to worry about printing. Is the ink dried up? How long will the ink last? Do I have enough money left to get new ink to finish the project?
Not with my color Laser. I need to print. I can count on it to do the job with no greif.
The printer fuser drum will die at about around 45,000 pages. So total cost for the life of the printer before it's simply not worth fixing will be $5300, or under $0.12 a page. The same 45,000 pages from a $50 inkjet printer with an average of $50 for new ink carts and 25 pages per cart.... $90,000 always at $2.00 a page.
Do the math and ***** the Inkjet Empire. - parrotscience, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Why complain about the cost of gasoline - how much does ink cost per gallon???
- headzoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The water bottle analogy by vob1can was pretty good.
- yensed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I But The Damn $29 cartrige, im going to do what i want with it..
- Scopitone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ratteler, you sound like a Laser commercial.
"Not with my color Laser. I need to print. I can count on it to do the job with no 'greif'."
Shop smart. Shop Laser! - Parks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0LOL! Exactly tankdog. This needs to become like the sex offender registration program. "If you move to a new location you must register with the ink cartrige refiller register". What are the penalties going to be anyway? I say that Lexmark should be boycotted by everyone. I own a computer store and I'll mention this to everyone that asks me about printers. YOU SUCK LEXMARK!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0***** them im refilling for life, it doesnt even work for the color, but by refilling my black cartrige i haved saved over $500. (i use my black cartige far more often. EX: i downloaded EVERY nirvana guitar tab and lyric.... TWICE)
- M4tt3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0^they = the
- Randude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Good ol' ninth circus! What will they think of next?
- karamba_kid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Oh well. Guess it's time to go back to stealing Ink cartridges then.
- JackandCoke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Beware of other one-time use items though, not just ink cartridges.
- Stratochief66, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Government is broken and somebody needs to fix it!
- M4tt3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The Patriot Act is a joke.
- hochmann, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Umm, this is a blog posting, and there's no media coverage of it anywhere else on the net... It'd be nice to get some sort of corroboration. Even ignoring this, the ruling is in a case with ACRA - an "association of cartridge manufacturers" (as the EFF link puts it).
Yeah, it is a lame ruling, but this was not a ruling against a consumer! It could be twisted that way in the future, but this is just sensationalist crap a la Slashdot. - skeeto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Interesting. I've used the Staples referbished brands that are cheaper (but only by like 2 bucks). They just take the brand name ones people send to them in their prepaid enveloeps, re-fill them, put a Staples sticker over the original sticker and re-pack it in a Staples box. I guess that'll be done away with if this law or whatever passes.
By the way:
HP Cartridge Expires - HP and Corporate Plunder
http://www.land.netonecom.net/tlp/ref/letters/hpPrinters.php - samgab, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Has the world gone mad?
Will there be an underground "inkjet hacking community"? - doctechnical, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I went and did a silly thing, and RTFA (and linked PDF), it seems to me that according to the "agreement" on the box, you are NOT buying the cartridge - you're renting it. After you've used up the ink, you have to send the cartridge back to Lexmark. This is part of the condition of getting a cheaper price on the cart than if you bought one you didn't have to return - and given that the cartridges w/o the return restriction are also available (at a higher price), y'all can get one of those instead, and refill (legally) until your bum falls off.
We now return to our previously scheduled paranoid rantings... - macgabriel87, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0wtf. who thought of doing this!? obviously they are doing it for more money...
- Oh_Key_Nee_Nam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0THE COST OF INK is a CRIME!
- lucky2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I heard that there a 3 layers of protection on the ink cartridge and it has to be connected to the Internet to use it. If you modify the cartridge in any way it will not work anymore.
......oh wait that's blue ray
I know that the ruling is mainly for companies that refill the cartridges and not really the consumer, but when are companies going to realize that if the consumer buys their product they should be able to use it anyway they want. - Yodacola, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Under the Patriot Act, using any electronic device other than its intended use is an act of global terrorism, so filling up ink cartridges can get you arrested for life. Now that is something to think about.
- stipes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Read through the actual court decision. Lexmark had a deal where you got a discount on the cartridge if you agreed to send it back to them when it ran out. That is a contractual obligation, so Lexmark was just trying to hold people up to their end of the bargain. There has been no decision about making it illegal to refill your cartridges. If you want to be able to refill your cartridges, don't agree to their contract on getting them for $30 off in the first place. That's all there is to it.
For reference:
(Comment) http://www.corante.com/copyfight/archives/2005/09/02/the_latest_ip_crime_boxwrap_patent_infringement.php#31472
(Ruling - PDF)
http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/ACRA_v_Lexmark/ACRA_v_Lexmark_9th_circuit_ruling.pdf
See page 3, among others - steveng, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0My Canons ink costs 9$ for Black, and 18$ for color. I love Canon printers, and they have the cheapest ink.
- stetsows, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0And that is why this court is referred to as the Ninth Circus. Crap like this comes out of this court way too often.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I smell BS!
http://www.geek2us.net
Coffee - Guano, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I'm shaking in my boots.
- skyshark88, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0And yet again corporate America has successfully taken away more of our freedoms. . . That's right folks, they can take your house, sue you if your kids download music & throw you in jail for refilling an ink cartridge.
This 82nd airborne division paratrooper has realized the country that I have fought for and seen my comrades die for, has turned into a socialist state, ran by Corporations and special interest groups. - FunkyGuy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0"sir you are being put under custody for refilling your ink cartridges"
- dr_green, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0lol...lol...lol...
- M4tt3r, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0***** Lexmark, and their cheap ass ***** anyways.
How they hell would they enfore this anyways? What a joke!
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