If you thought printer cartridge DRM was bad, Dymo is forcing users to buy RFID paper
Printer manufacturer Dymo is facing backlash after it debuted new label printers that feature digital rights management embedded in their paper.
Credit: Dymo
The latest Dymo label printers sport RFID readers that can authenticate the labels that customers place within the printers. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, this allows Dymo to distinguish between first-party labels and cheaper alternatives.
Dymo touts the benefits of the chipped label paper in its sales literature, including auto-detection and remaining label counts. However, the chipping also forces Dymo customers to purchase first-party labels that are more expensive than many of their competitors.
Some label makers are already adding warnings about the lock-in, advising users that the new label printers won't work if they don't detect the chipped paper.
The move has courted controversy, and many users are already coming up with ways to bypass the paper-baseD DRM. However, third-party labels manufacturers and others may have solid legal reasons to not offer a workaround.
According to the EFF, under U.S. copyright law, rivals that distribute tools for bypassing an "access control" for a copyrighted work can be subject to up to $500,000 in fines and five years in prison. The firmware on a Dymo printer can fall under copyrighted work.
"Dymo is trying something unprecedented here," the EFF wrote. "DRM in paper is such an abysmal, abusive idea that we should all recoil from it."
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Credit: Dymo
The latest Dymo label printers sport RFID readers that can authenticate the labels that customers place within the printers. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, this allows Dymo to distinguish between first-party labels and cheaper alternatives.
Dymo touts the benefits of the chipped label paper in its sales literature, including auto-detection and remaining label counts. However, the chipping also forces Dymo customers to purchase first-party labels that are more expensive than many of their competitors.
Some label makers are already adding warnings about the lock-in, advising users that the new label printers won't work if they don't detect the chipped paper.
The move has courted controversy, and many users are already coming up with ways to bypass the paper-baseD DRM. However, third-party labels manufacturers and others may have solid legal reasons to not offer a workaround.
According to the EFF, under U.S. copyright law, rivals that distribute tools for bypassing an "access control" for a copyrighted work can be subject to up to $500,000 in fines and five years in prison. The firmware on a Dymo printer can fall under copyrighted work.
"Dymo is trying something unprecedented here," the EFF wrote. "DRM in paper is such an abysmal, abusive idea that we should all recoil from it."
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Firstly, I am not sure that law holds any water in this scenario, Apple was not able to stop Hacintosh or Cydia.
Secondly, that's why we have China and Alibaba.
Thirdly, what's a printer?
True, printer manufacturers have been fighting this battle for ages with inks and paper. Nothing new here except for the RFID.
Also, I am suspect that there is an RFID is in every sheet of paper, it's most probably in the reel. Just reuse the reel. Hmm but they can also disable the RFID if a certain number of prints occurred under a certain RFID code.
I hope they (Dymo) get their wee wee slapped really hard and they end up paying a ton of legal fees on a losing battle.
This sounds like the same thing. Surely this is not legal under the same finding?
But that works against them, because someone may figure out how to change the recorded value.
If they were to limit paper supplies to only OEM I would not buy one again.
The ability for someone to think for themselves and have principles has diminished tremendously. Nowadays, a person’s principles are largely just, ‘If it make me happy or feel worthwhile then it’s good. Even if I see something bad about it, if I have to sacrifice anything at all then I’ll just accept it.’ This inability to think, research, and have principles has multiplied over the last two years in our response to the coronavirus, and people in power absolutely love it and exploit it.