<
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/03/07/hp-tries-desperately-to-make-printer-as-a-subscription-a-thing/>
"When last we checked in with Hewlett Packard (HP), the company had just been
sued (for the second time) for crippling customer printers if owners attempt to
use cheaper, third-party printer cartridges. It was just the latest in a long
saga where printer manufacturers use DRM or dodgy software updates to wage all
out war on consumer choice.
There hasn’t been a whole lot of introspection going on at the company since.
Shortly after the lawsuit HP CEO Enrique Lores went on CNBC to double down on
the company’s position. First by making up claims that HP has to be obnoxious
about cartridges to protect consumer security (false), then by basically
stating that any consumer who intelligently shops for cartridges is a “bad
investment.”
This week HP unveiled its latest plan on this track: printing as a service. The
company’s new “All-In Plan” requires that you pay anywhere from $7 a month to
$36 a month to rent a printer with a set printable page limit. During your
rental, HP sends you, of course, their ink cartridges.
As
Ars Technica notes, the printer must remain connected to the internet for
monitoring. And the company’s privacy policy effectively gives HP full control
over, well, everything:
“Subject to the terms of this Agreement, You hereby grant to HP a
non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free right to use, copy, store, transmit,
modify, create derivative works of and display Your non-personal data for
its business purposes..”
And of course the subscription comes with long term contracts and early
termination fees should you not subscribe for the full two-year term. All told,
the tone-deafness is fairly stunning."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
