News Brother accused of locking down third-party printer ink cartridges via firmware updates, removing older firmware versions from support portals

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Every publicly traded corporation is an anti-consumer company. That's the entire point of why corporate executives are trained to use a dehumanizing word like "consumer". You are not a people to them, and that's the way they like it.
Like the slag in a mine you are merely the useless byproduct that holds a resource in need of extraction.
You know what will happen if this ruins Brother's sales? Well what happens with most companies is the self-serving sociopath responsible will move on to a bigger company, and ruin that - and then the next one, and so on. A whole career.
It's preferrable that this becomes overwhelmingly successful for Brother, so the CEO is incentivized to stay in one place that has already been ruined. That's damage control.
Start blaming the board of executives, then the CEO - not just the company. Board members often control many companies at the same time, and CEOs move around A LOT. Kazufumi Ikeda (Brother's new CEO as of last June) is going to finish ruining Brother to strip out as much cash for himself as possible - and hopefully stay there until he retires - which actually might be soon, he's old and a lifer at Brother.
Actually a little curious if the whole company is doing this, or if some pharma-bro type in the international/western leadership trying to make a splash before jumping up the ladder at the next company.

Here's the next problem: Brother is primarily a Sewing machine company. I bet $10,000 they try (and succeed) to add printer-style DRM to sewing consumables like thread within the next 2 years. Good luck trying to explain to your grandma she can't hem a seam anymore because of "the microchips".
Although, the craft industry is already beyond filthy with DRM due to (extremely successful) companies like Cricut. Imagine if your printer could only print specific clip art - and you had to buy those digital files on a printer-ink inspired cartridge.
So buy your sewing machine now, keep it offline, and hope that plastic piece of junk lasts the rest of your life.

It's important for people to learn how to build and maintain their own machines, of all types. Most of all, try to save your money for companies who treat their customers, like customers.
 
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Giroro said:
Every publicly traded corporation is an anti-consumer company. That's the entire point of why corporate executives are trained to use a dehumanizing word like "consumer".
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They call us "consumers" because we aren't their customers. The board members are the customers and their stock is the product. This happens when the founding individual/team lose majority ownership of a company. Instead of pleasing the customer of their products/service, they have to please the board to keep their jobs. An unfortunate inevitability.

We have to be diligent and vote with our wallets. Let the business die so a new one can be customer first for a while. But it does get much harder as patents and copyrights are bought by giant soulless conglomerates, which prevents smaller businesses from actually catering to customers. That's why we also desperately need some patent/copyright reform, but that's a whole other topic...
 
rgd1101 said:
spend a little more last time and got a ink tank printer.

....until they can id ink.
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Better collect Ink Jet heads. I use to run tanks and the problem with them is your tank heads drying out. Perhaps the issue is fixed now with continuous cleaning cycles.

I go with an old Color laser Samsung Printer (they sold out to HP). I still need to do the Toner mod (Resistor add to enable reset toner clock). There are fewer and fewr players and all are compromised sadly...
 
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Well, Brother WAS on my list for when I ultimately replaced my aging/dying MFC black and white printer.

All they had to do to maintain a good reputation is "Don't do that crap that everyone else does." That was it.

Now - well, damned if you do, damned if you don't. Why should I buy Brother if they're no better than the competition?
 
I recently purchased a Brother 4-in-1 for the office. I’ve been using and recommending Brother printers for over two decades. They were less expensive and more supported to any others I was aware of. I noticed the Brother ink replacement program at the time of purchase and wondered if they were going the way of HP… didn’t expect to feel the pain this quickly. While it changes nothing about my present setup, it will impact choices in future. Really no idea where to turn after this. Epson?…
 
Sippincider said:
Spent more here last time and got a color laser.

Not cheap up front, but better long term in not having plugged cartridges or jets whenever one goes to use it.
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Well, make sure you don't have any vendor program that can silently update the firmware on your color laser.

I've bought only lasers, at first because of the higher print quality. Also, lasers are so much cheaper to run long-term than an inkjet with their clogging printheads & ink cartridges that can dry out on you if not regularly used. Color inkjets were the only ones that did better in terms of photo-quality output. Then color lasers came out & slowly improved in their color output quality - perhaps still a bit behind color inkjets but still much cheaper in price-per-page.

Now I only run a color laser (older HP), for the few times I have to print something. I removed HP's software, and I don't update the original print driver for it. Hopefully that will keep it going without any funny business from "new" firmware updates.
 
Years ago I bought one the New Epson Ecotank printers. It was over $500 but looked like a great deal. Just squirt cheap ink into a tank. After several months I noticed I had to go through repeated cleaning cycles to get a decent picture. Then I found out the way Epson was making their money on the ecotanks. You have to pay an "Authorized Dealer" to change out the head cleaners. (An absorbent wiper that cleans the head). It has a lockout chip and at the time it cost about $200 to get it changed. I stopped printing with it and use it only as a document scanner. (It does fine for that). I went back to using my color laser and a few years later bought a more modern laser printer. (I could no longer get toner for my Konica Minolta 5430DL).
 
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1_rick said:
You would think removing a feature from a product you bought would be ripe for a lawsuit. It's like stealing.
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not just "like" stealing, it is. I can see lawsuits in their future as really the product has changed since purchase without the buyers consent so they are at least entitled to a refund.
 
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