From the creators of "Black ink is more expensive than blood", "I'm going to block your printer because you use alternative cartridges", "The damn sponges from hell", and the classic "You'll pay for ink I won't let you use", comes the new installment: "You need ink to scan a document". This nefarious practice is much older than we think, but a recent legal development shared by Ars Technica confirms its application across almost the entire industry.
Some people simply cannot escape printers. Perhaps they manage to end the tyranny of cartridges, achieve unstable peace with continuous ink systems, or find some solace in laser technology, but the printer will still be there, like a monument to the greed of its manufacturers.
Why do I say "greed"? Because only through it can the aberration of blocking the scanning function in an All-in-One printer due to lack of ink be committed. Consumer Reports touched on this same topic in January 2013, however, Ars Technica shared details about a lawsuit by two users against Hewlett-Packard for the inability to scan documents with their HP Envy 6455e and HP Deskjet 2655 printers under low ink conditions.
Do we need ink to scan? Manufacturers say yes
The original lawsuit was initially dismissed in January of this year, although authorities allowed its modification. In recent days, HP again requested its dismissal, but the judge in charge rejected that request, and the lawsuit will continue. Different was the story in the case of Canon printers: Both Techdirt and The Verge talked about this last year, but the original plaintiff reached a private settlement with the company.
The Ars Technica article lists all the models of Hewlett-Packard and Canon that appear in the lawsuits for this... "requirement". However, it is necessary to mention that Canon took the trouble to pick up the gauntlet, and its support section includes instructions to temporarily disable ink detection. In parallel, Epson reminds its users that since 2008, its printers allow scanning documents when the ink level is low... with a condition: The empty cartridges must remain installed, and be original.
Everything seems to indicate that the companies' strategy in the short and medium term will be to respond to lawsuits one by one, and modify official documents to avoid future legal conflicts, instead of doing the right thing: Allowing the user to scan their documents like a normal person.
Sources: Ars Technica, The Verge
