Oh Brother

Turns out the last vendor of printers that could be recommended, Brother, is possibly turning evil.

The Register points out Oh Brother. Printer giant denies dirty toner tricks as users cry foul:

Right-to-repair activist and electronics technician Louis Rossmann posted a video blasting the Japanese [Brother], claiming it has updated printer firmware to block or degrade the printing experience when using non-OEM toner.

Do we have to actually cancel all printing now?

Printer vendors famously use a razor and blade business model whereas buying the device / tool has reasonable cost, but company aresubsidised by the exclusive supply of overpriced consumable. For printers, third-party ink supply has been a long practice that vendors have decided to block by using software and abusing laws like the DMCA. HP is famous for that, so are Lexmark (who pioneered it) and EPSON.

And often some of this attack on consumers are performed after market with automatic firmware update. If anything the law should be prohibiting this but that’s wishfull thinking, a law that would protect consumers instead of the oligarchs.

Brother so far didn’t, selling solid laser printers. This era might be over. And they deny it:

According to Ars Technica Brother denies using firmware updates to brick printers with third-party ink:

Brother denied to Ars Technica that it intentionally bricks printer functionality when users install third-party toner or ink. In a statement, the company said:

We are aware of the recent false claims suggesting that a Brother firmware update may have restricted the use of third-party ink cartridges. Please be assured that Brother firmware updates do not block the use of third-party ink in our machines.

Brother said it’s “actively addressing the source of these false claims to ensure accurate information is available to our customers.”

Brother reply is still telling, and I think we’ll need to have more investigation to confirm if it’s really an attempt to lock out, user error, or a software bug. And if you have one make sure you disable software updates.

To be continued…