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Brother accused of locking down third-party printer ink cartridges

RepairTuber Louis Rossmann taken aback by Brother’s quiet turn to the dark side.

Fabled RepairTuber and right to repair crusader Louis Rossmann has shared a new video encapsulating his surprise, and disappointment, that Brother has morphed into an “anti-consumer printer company.” More information about Brother’s embrace of the dark side are shared on Rossmann’s wiki, with the major two issues being new firmware disabling third party toner, and preventing (on color devices) color registration functionality. Above he admits that he used to tell long-suffering HP or Canon printing device owners faces with cartridge DRM issues “Buy a brother laser printer for $100 and all of your woes will be solved.” While he admittedly can’t do much about these printer industry machinations, Rossmann says it feels important to document these changes which show that property rights for individuals are disappearing.

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