Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

I'm sure HP will follow suite any moment now.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I think I might have peed a little bit there!

With the ongoing world-wide chip shortage that's creeping into everything, it has now crept into the ink jet refill supply chain! I guess Canon has either been getting slammed with support calls or has decided to be preemptive and is telling people that the refills they are now producing will not have chips, like third-party refills that you can buy for much less than the Canon-brand refills. And when you get a warning on "its imageRUNNER large-office printers how to defeat its own protections against cartridges that don’t have chips.

The software on these printers comes with a relatively simple way to defeat the chip checks. Depending on the model, when an error message occurs after inserting toner, users can press either “I Agree,” “Close,” or “OK.” When users press that button, the world does not end. Rather, Canon says users may find that their toner cartridge doesn’t give them a low-toner warning before running empty.

“Although there are no negative effects on print quality when consumables are used without electronic components, certain additional functions, such as the detection of the toner level, may be impaired,” Canon’s support site says.

So don't worry about print quality, just don't be surprised if it runs completely dry without any further warnings. Seems fair.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/01/chip-shortage-has-canon-telling-customers-how-to-skirt-its-printer-toner-drm/

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/22/01/10/1959243/chip-shortage-has-canon-telling-customers-how-to-defeat-its-drm

Interesting. Pretty much everyone who has tried DRM has either abandoned it or failed. Not that this won't prevent others from trying it in the future. I was unaware until a few months ago that Apple had stopped applying DRM to iTunes music, apparently they still use it for videos, audiobooks, and apps.

http://opensource.com/life/11/11/drm-graveyard-brief-history-digital-rights-management-music

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/11/05/1819243/a-brief-history-of-failed-digital-rights-management-schemes

"Cory Doctorow is reporting on a leaked copy of the 'internet enforcement' portion of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. He describes it as reading like a 'DMCA-plus' with provisions for third-party liability, digital locks, and 'a duty to technology firms to shut down infringement where they have "actual knowledge" that such is taking place.' For example, this could mean legal responsibility shifting to Apple for customers copying mp3s onto their iPods." Adds an anonymous reader, "Michael Geist points out that the leaks demonstrate that ACTA would create a Global DMCA and move toward a three-strikes-and-you're-out system. While the US has claimed that ACTA won't establish a mandatory three strikes system, it specifically uses three-strikes as its model."

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/02/21/2136238/ACTA-Internet-Chapter-Leaked-mdash-Bad-For-Everyone?art_pos=10

I think it's a little much to say bad for everyone. It's Hollywood's wet dream.

I can't imagine how many times that lyric has been, or will be, used to describe the Obama administration.

Among the things that concerned me about the Obama administration was the appointment of former RIAA attorneys into high positions in the Department of Justice. Add to that the fact that Veep Biden is a major friend of Hollywood and has been a proponent of DRM in the past, then this shouldn't be much of a surprise:

Obama DOJ Sides With RIAA
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The Obama Administration's Department of Justice, with former RIAA lawyers occupying the 2nd and 3rd highest positions in the department, has shown its colors, intervening on behalf of the RIAA in the case against a Boston University graduate student, SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, accused of file sharing when he was 17 years old. Its oversized, 39-page brief (PDF) relies upon a United States Supreme Court decision from 1919 which upheld a statutory damages award, in a case involving overpriced railway tickets, equal to 116 times the actual damages sustained, and a 2007 Circuit Court decision which held that the 1919 decision — rather than the Supreme Court's more recent decisions involving punitive damages — was applicable to an award against a Karaoke CD distributor for 44 times the actual damages. Of course none of the cited cases dealt with the ratios sought by the RIAA: 2,100 to 425,000 times the actual damages for an MP3 file. Interestingly, the Government brief asked the Judge not to rule on the issue at this time, but to wait until after a trial. Also interestingly, although the brief sought to rebut, one by one, each argument that had been made by the defendant in his brief, it totally ignored all of the authorities and arguments that had been made by the Free Software Foundation in its brief. Commentators had been fearing that the Obama/Biden administration would be tools of the RIAA; does this filing confirm those fears?"

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/22/184221

First, Apple reduces the price of music that does not have DRM down to their standard $0.99 that they charge for their ironically-named "Fairply" DRM-enabled music. I'm wondering if this might herald a reduction of their DRM'd music. Regardless, I think it's a good move.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/10/itunes-plus-drm.html


Second, Led Zeppelin announces that their music can now be sold digitally. I don't know if Apple will be offering it or not. So as it stands, apparently the only hold-outs for not selling online are The Beatles and Garth Brooks.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/15/2350211