Canon Forced to Ship “Knockoff” Ink Cartridges
Printer makers have long used chips to thwart third-party ink cartridge sales and drive you toward their own products, but they’re now feeling the sting of those restrictions. The Register and USA Today note Canon has had to ship toner cartridges without copy protection chips due to ongoing shortages. That, in turn, has led to some ImageRunner multifunction printers incorrectly flagging official cartridges as knockoffs — Canon has even told printer owners how to bypass the warnings and deal with broken toner level detection.
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The printer trouble illustrates one of the common complaints about digital rights management (DRM) and other copy protection systems: they create trouble the moment their designers can’t offer full support.
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