The scandal over the self-destruction of HP printers that use alternative ink cartridges has not died down, and while thousands of users are demanding some kind of official intervention or investigation, now comes an open letter drafted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In it, the company is called upon to publicly apologize, to restore the functionality of its printers, to not use security updates as DRM, and to reveal all changes its patches will apply in the future.
The feeling of "here we go again" hangs in the air. The frictions between Hewlett-Packard and its customers have been many in recent years, and it is increasingly clear that the company has no intention of changing its strategy. Even so, the timer incident in its firmware updates that destroys printers with alternative cartridges was the last straw. No matter what HP's arguments or reasons are, in the eyes of users it qualifies as an act of sabotage. Naturally, the Electronic Frontier Foundation joined the protest. In an open letter addressed to HP's CEO and president Dion Weisler, the EFF points out the company's mistakes in implementing its "firmwaregate", and recommends a series of urgent measures to correct the situation.
The EFF's letter attacks several critical points that expose the weakness behind HP's reasoning. The fact of "tying" products together (in this case, HP printers with HP inks), only leads to a monopolistic price structure, reducing competition and innovation in the market. In other words, users should choose HP inks because they are the best, not because their printers are incapable of working with alternative inks. It also mentions HP's abuse in using its security platform to distribute DRM. Printers are increasingly complex and require updates like the rest of the system, but all the timer achieved is that from now on users "distrust" those updates, and by extension, become vulnerable to new attacks. Finally, the EFF text accuses HP of adopting a "bait and hook" tactic, since the timer took six months to activate, and of threatening to invoke section 1201 of the DMCA, which prohibits the development of techniques to avoid or circumvent security measures in a system protected by copyright.
Therefore, the EFF "suggests" that HP immediately implement the following five points: publicly apologize to its customers and restore the functionality of the affected printers with a new firmware update, commit to never again use its security platform to distribute mechanisms that go against the interests of users, reveal the effects of all future updates, expose any capability or intention to remove functions from a device (so consumers know this before buying), and promise that it will never invoke section 1201 of the DMCA.
I think that before that happens we will discover the equation for cold fusion inside the Holy Grail, but not all is lost. Users always have the option to vote with their wallets, and on the Web they never tire of suggesting Brother laser printers as a good alternative to the DRM madness in the ink market. Another very viable option would be the creation of an open source printer. If we can already print in 3D with that philosophy, I imagine a sheet of paper should be simpler...
