They’ll get a slap on the wrist fine that nowhere near accounts for the amount of money they made doing this.
True but this also sets precedent for other cases which is an overall win. But i do wish the fines were bigger I agree with you there.
They need to do a percentage of revue, rather than a fixed price for businesses. Affects bigger companies harder, but let’s smaller ones still work through it.
I loved how EU set fines for GDPR breaches and I feel the same should be applied in other fields when companies are involved. There are two tiers of penalties, with a maximum of 20m euros or 4% of global revenue. That way they feel it. Really feel it. Google got smacked 50 million € for GDPR breach. H&M 35M.
HP has one of the worst customer experiences out there. I don’t understand why people keep buying HP trash.
software locks are inherently immoral and anti consumer.
Stallman from FSF would probably say only if the software is updateable. Firmware which can’t be changed is no different from hardware. I kind of agree, even though he said that about open source. But the point still stands. If printer can’t be used without account or always online or ink. Then it’s a feature. Whether you agree with it or not, vote with your wallet. However if they hide the feature that’s misleading advertising and it’s a different crime all together.
But what HP tried to do is to send over the air update that prevented printers from using recycled toner. Now that’s a bitch move.
By itself there is nothing immoral in software lock, but the way it is used here is immoral. It is common understanding and expectation that the scanner should work if there is no ink, thus locking scanner is doggy technique. Locking printer if you do not have ink, however, is totally fine, since it prevents printer damage.
I’ve been using brother laser printers for over 15 years now. Toner is very reasonably priced from them and lasts forever. Plus, no sketchy things like forced registration.
I’ve been using the HL-L8360 for a few years and I still haven’t had to replace the cartridges it came with. Gone through probably 8-10 reams of paper in that time. The starter cartridges are the smallest of the three sizes too, so when they go I’ll just buy the big ones and probably be good for a half decade or more haha!
If you’re looking for something a little cheaper, you could look into something like the HLL3210. I’m not sure which is true laser and which is LED, but usually the inexpensive ones are LED and not true laser printers. Really that only matters if you’re looking for that extra-crisp text from a laser printer. For day-to-day printing you’ll never care or notice.
EAT IT YOU LITTLE SHITS
Sadly, they earned a lot of money and this was just calculated expense of doing business. Pretty much all big companies operate like that. Abuse the system, rake in money, leave some aside for settling lawsuits. Forbidding them to sell products for a specific time or recalling all the printers and giving money back… that would make them think twice about next time.
