North Carolina Fights Back Against Lexmark 412
ngrier writes "Seems that at least some aren't sitting idly by, while printer manufacturers try to assert total control. The North Carolina legislature just approved a measure which guarantees the consumer's right to refill ink cartridges. For history of the Lexmark DMCA-related story, involving the company placing copyright-protected code in their printer cartridges in order to prevent competitors from producing compatible cartridges, there are previous Slashdot posts about it here(1), here(2), and here(3)."
So state law... (Score:5, Insightful)
I doubt it, although Lexmark would be a fool to push it.
Finally... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not about choice (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh please....consumer choice doesn't have anything to do with this. A North Carolina company may get shut down, costing 1,200 jobs, which is why there is soon going to be a law protecting it.
I half expect Kentucky's government to jump in and ban the sale of replacement ink cartridges to protect Kentucky jobs or some other nonsense.
Special exemptions (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Let's do it with Apple! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I like this (Score:4, Insightful)
Never ever buy from Lexmark again, and encourage others to follow suit.
Um, So what? (Score:4, Insightful)
Even though California or Oregon voters may be in favor of medical marijuana, the federal prohibition on marijuana trumps that.
Repeal DMCA on a federal level, or otherwise the efforts are meaningless.
LK
Re:Let's do it with Apple! (Score:5, Insightful)
If you buy a computer from SGI what OS choice do you have when you order it? For the workstation, it don't look like it
http://www.sgi.com/workstations/fuel/sys_soft
http://www.sgi.com/workstations/tezro/sys_s
http://www.sgi.com/workstations/octane2/sy
What Lexmark is doing and what Apple/Sun/SGI are doing is like comparing Apples and Oranges.
Yea, when you buy a G4 you get stuck with OS X and Classic. But Apple doesn't use the DMCA to keep you from installing Linux on the box.
Aren't there enough laws? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it really the job of government to pass such narrow, precise laws like this? Or, instead, should they be passing higher-level laws which a) most of us can even keep in our heads to start with and b) cover a whole lot of smaller, more specific cases?
Re:Um, So what? (Score:4, Insightful)
And what happens to people in California, when they're found guilty of growing or posessing medical marijuana? They get just one day in jail. [aegis.com]
Now, apply this to ink. Granted, it's a lot different that marijuana laws - but, the state will wind up doing nothing to help the federal government in this matter, which is a big win. And it'll turn a blind-eye to anyone who wants to keep producing 3rd-party ink. Another win.
The idea of nullification now'a'days is just to be such a pain in the ass that the federal government has to eventually rethink their position. Hell, look at all the anti-patriot act bills floating around.
Re:Open Letter to Inkjet Printer Manufacturers (Score:5, Insightful)
Normally in the computer market, high end features trickle down into comsumer product features, I was hoping for a home printer that could hold a ream of paper and have separate trays for labels and envelopes and plug and play networking. Instead we have the mess that is the printer market today.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I like this (Score:5, Insightful)
Since when is take it or leave it the only option in a free market? What is so wrong with wanting to be able to buy something and do whatever the hell you want with it? Absent corporate welfare laws like the DMCA, Lexmark will spend money developing more and more complicated technological lockouts while companies like Static Control will profit by selling workarounds. Eventually Lexmark will realize that it is wasting its time and put the effort into making higher quality products that people are willing to pay a little extra for. That is a free market.
Re:I like this (Score:3, Insightful)
Sometimes the public doesnt know about the dangers or mistakes of buying a product. The state needs from time to time, step in and regulate the market place. For the people and all that jazz..
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Corporations steal its copyright infringment, people steal its called piracy.
Re:Consumers do have *some* power. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Let's do it with Apple! (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple doesn't prevent you from using a different OS, though. That's like saying Lexmark shouldn't include an ink cartridge with the printer when you buy it -- if nothing prevents you from changing it, I don't see why it would be a problem.
Re:So state law... (Score:2, Insightful)
The 10th Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I like this (Score:5, Insightful)
--Joey
The NC legislature got it wrong (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What happened to free enterprise? (Score:0, Insightful)
Yeah, free markets are nice. The US has killed a lot of people for their free market ideology.
But when it comes to steel, there shall be no fucking free market.
Hypocrites.
doesn't have to (Score:3, Insightful)
Ink is the new gold (Score:2, Insightful)
It could be all of the companies in collusion with one another to keep the prices high.
We should boycott Lexmark and while we're at it boycott Epson for being busted by joint tests by several European consumer groups indicating that Epson ink cartridges prematurely block printers from churning out more pages even when there is enough ink to keep going.
Here's the story on that con [yahoo.com]
I think it'd be less painful to my pocket book if they could figure out how to turn my blood into ink from a simple IV...
Re:Consumers do have *some* power. (Score:2, Insightful)
A bunch of toxic garbage (Score:5, Insightful)
The result of this is simply a great deal of garbage that consumers have to pay to haul away.
I doubt that toner and ink cartridges are really the most environmentally friendly things in the landfills. I suspect the fewer we toss out the better.
My brain fart du jour is that it would be great if industries had to pick up the tab for the garbage they create. Lenmark and other competitors in the industry would have to pay a disposal fee that could be distributed to landfills to cover costs.
If industry had to pay for the waste up front, there would be a hope that they would design products that create less waste product.
As you point out, the industry is really about putting ink (which is relatively inexpensive) on paper. All the extra packaging, cartridge parts, etc., that get produced and sold in this game are waste.
Re:Let's do it with Apple! (Score:1, Insightful)
price of inkjet cartridges vs printer (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Let's do it with Apple! (Score:1, Insightful)
How will preventing Lexmark from only allowing Lexmark ink to be used benefit Lexmark?
"How will it benefit consumers?"
The same way as allowing competition for ink; cheaper prices, more variety.
What's good for the goose. (Score:5, Insightful)
I would agree with you except for one thing. Lexmark is using the DMCA to stop people from refilling ink cartridges. There's a crypto widget in cartridge that contains copyrighted info. Can't duplicate it. Can't reset it. Do so and it's "legislated to death time". The best outcome would be taking the DMCA behind the barn and having either the Supreme Court or Congress shoot it through the head. Since the media conglomerates and electronics monopolists won't permit the death of their dream come true, I'll take what North Carolina is doing as a consolation prize.
Re:Wrong (Score:3, Insightful)
I've never seen these cartridges, but I tend to doubt that Lexmark has gone to any effort to educate consumers that they are entering into any sort of contract.
Re:I like this (Score:2, Insightful)
You've obviously never bought a car.
Lemon laws serve as a check on dealer shenanigans. Especially with used cars, the threat of the state forcing the dealer to pay for the car's repairs is sometimes the only thing keeping the dealer from selling cars that really shouldn't be on the road.
However, your theory of removing all laws that protect consumers from corporations sounds like a great one. I can't wait to live in a world where I must sign a contract to even look at a car, I have to take the dealer's word on how efficient it is for gas mileage, and I just have to rely on a consumer group that can't summon cars for review to tell me if a car has serious safety hazards or not.
The free market is amazingly efficient at resource allocation--and that's about it. It's horrible at keeping a reasonable balance of weath, atrocious at preserving accuracy, and simply impotent when it comes to protecting participants in the market from the worst scams therin.
Capitalism without some government oversight is mob rule--and I think I'd be better served by a tyranny than the unthinking mob.
Protecting their Brand. (Score:4, Insightful)
There is, but it's not enforced well (Score:3, Insightful)
The DMCA does contain such a provision, codified as 17 USC 1201(f) [cornell.edu], but the courts have in effect nullified it in Universal v. Reimerdes by refusing to recognize DeCSS as having been "reverse engineered for purposes of interoperability".
Re:Protecting their Brand. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:so what is a good one... (Score:3, Insightful)
You can get a good b&w one for about $300, and the toner lasts damn near forever.
Re:I like this (Score:5, Insightful)
As long as corporations are given preferential tax and liability treatment, they should be subject to oversight and scrutiny. This is just and right.
I just wish it happened sometimes.
Re:I like this (Score:3, Insightful)
The big problem with this argument is that corps are getting bigger and bigger. There's gotta be restraints on them here and there to prevent them from stifling progress in any given area of development.
I do half-agree with you, though. Here's the thing: If everybody does what Lexmark's been doing, what's to stop people from just buying laser printers? If something desperately needs to be in color, either ppl will use digital means (e-mail, pocket/tabletPCs, etc) or they'll run down to Kinko's. I personally have already decided on the Kinko's bit. Sure, per page the color copies/prints might be expensive, but I'd have to buy a lot of them to equal one cartridge of ink.
If the market goes to one extreme, somebody'll come along and create equlibrium. So long as the mega-corps can't squash them, then things should work out. Problem is, keeping the mega-corps under control. In this case, legislation could potentially be the answer.
Re:unlawful undercutting, DRM, DMCA, etc (Score:3, Insightful)
The fact that a state, especially one of the most important IT states (North Carolina and RTP) is legislating local exceptions to the DMCA, would suggest great FLAWS in that law... Ones that a true DEMOCRATIC process (process not party) would not allow.
North Carolina has a LOT of influence. It's the eastern US's Silicon Valley. But not as high tax or as stupid as California.
Re:Let's do it with Apple! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Protecting their Brand. (Score:2, Insightful)
Putting out the fire with water pistols? (Score:2, Insightful)
Doesn't matter about federal law - no jurisdiction (Score:3, Insightful)