I asked the store manager if there were refillable cartridges I could just buy online, instead of being forced to pay for like 3 different products! (Not Cheap!) She said that the companies sometimes make printers go error if you use unauthorized ink…
Absolutely pointless production that fuels climate change 🙄. Get me out of here! I’m stuck in 2D!
I joined a group of people that wanted to make a fully open source printer. Unfortunately none of them were actually doing anything and I eventually quit too…
Edit: We’re back!
Story of my life
The world feels like a wasteland sometimes. Like 95% of people just consooming content, 4% creating shitty content, and 1% actually doing something worthwhile. A FOSS printer would be so cool too.
I think this kind of thing is part of what radicalized me. Like we have the technology to conserve and refill ink and shit and not have it be such a big deal, but instead we use our profound knowledge of technology to make ink more expensive than the actual printer and gatekeep it behind first party ink cartriges. It’s mental
For printing it’s best to stick to black and white get a laser printer. Their toners are much cheaper and last longer. And hit up a print shop in case you want fancy colored prints.
I actually don’t have one but this is what I’ve heard. I also don’t know if laser printers implement DRM or not.
They still have DRM.
also they tend to steganographically encode their serial number and the date and time in everything they print
The cheaper models don’t do this fortunately. The method printers use to encode steganography is by using micro shifts in the pixels of a document, and the cheaper printer models have too much tolerance in the printer head movement and just cheap electronics.
The steganography is used in more powerful printers in order to combat currency counterfeiting since those are the printers capable of producing convincing currency.
On a side note, if you are worried someone will hardcore look at agitprop you are posting around town or something, highly unlikely. The time and resources required to forensically analyze documents is too high for a government to waste resources trying to chase every anarchist, socialist, radlib, etc., posting flyers around town. There are more cost effective ways for triple letter agencies or even local police to attack their political enemies.
The cheaper models don’t do this fortunately
The EFF writes “Some of the documents that we previously received through FOIA suggested that all major manufacturers of color laser printers entered a secret agreement with governments to ensure that the output of those printers is forensically traceable” … so “it is probably safest to assume that all modern color laser printers do include some form of tracking information that associates documents with the printer’s serial number”.
The time and resources required to forensically analyze documents is too high
Bullshit. Obviously they aren’t tracking down the source of every single flyer around town but anyone who is engaged in any type of political activity that the FBI could conceivably decide to investigate should be aware that this technology exists and is used. It isn’t remotely difficult to decode the dots; some of the researchers who revealed this tech actually do it painstakingly by hand with a magnifying glass but of course it is a fully automated process when the FBI does it.
Really psychotic shit
So is the only way to get a non-DRM printer is to buy a used ancient one?
Or I guess learn to screenprint, blockprint, or lithography like the old days.
Honey, wake up! It’s time to screen print your ID to the IRS!
Just use a typewriter bro
Reject modernity, embrace metal type casting.
Wasn’t there a news story about companies running out of chips for cartridges so their printers didn’t recognize them as “legitimate”… and the companies told costumers that they can ignore the message with no problem.
The line between ‘capitalist innovation’ and racketeering is a very thin
