Re: Can cryptography prevent printer-ink piracy?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Simon Higgs <simon () higgs com>
Date: July 6, 2007 11:42:06 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Can cryptography prevent printer-ink piracy?
Reply-To: simon () higgs com

Dave,

That's a perfect way for a manufacturer to loose it's customer base.

Lexmark tried this already and lost in court. The result is no-one  
trusts Lexmark as a brand and their market share has suffered as a  
consequence.

Epson printers have a huge audience, mainly because they can be used  
with a variety of third-party (even home-made) inks. Pigment inks are  
used for professional photography and edible inks are used in  
catering (for printing onto cakes, etc.). None of this would be  
possible if the printers were locked into Epson's own inks.

Introducing cryptographic chips which lock printers exclusively to  
proprietary inks is commercial suicide.

Simon

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