Bend over Americans, Epson loves to screw you

A

Adam Albright

Yes, this is a little off topic. Still this is a general category
newsgroup and just about everybody has a printer and may have bought
Espon. Learn why I'll NEVER buy another Espon printer again and why
you shouldn't either.

To be honest, I've been mad at Epson for some time. I've had several
of their printers and they work well enough, that isn't the issue.
Where this started is right now in a class action law suit. Espon has
agreed to make good on their deception by giving customers one free
ink refill. For those that may not know, Epson was caught with it's
corporate pants around it's ankles when it was proved beyond an
reasonable doubt that they rigged their ink cartridges to show "empty"
way ahead of the time they actually were, thus causing untold hundreds
of thousands of customers to replace ink before they had to, thus
greatly fattening the Epson bottom line. That's strike one. I hate
corporate greed.

Strike two was when Epson flat out refused to provide Vista drivers
for dozens of it's printers, some only 2-3 years old. Again the
obvious reason being corporate greed. That's strike two in my book.

A few days ago I learned something where I now offically HATE Espon
with a passion and you may too if you keep reading for the under
handed and sneaky stunt they are still getting away with regarding
printing directly on CD/DVDs.

As many already know, Epson is on of a couple major companies that
offer printers that can print a label directly on a blank disc's
surface thus avoiding the messy and often klunky label attempt. In
fact I have a Epson photo 900 series, which under Vista no longer
works fully because of Espon refusing to upgrade the driver.

So the other day I was checking out printers at my local Fry's. As
fate would have it there were a couple Canon reps in the store. I was
asked what kind of printers I had, said, Epson and HP, and as expected
the sales rep tried to push Canon's features. What was totally
unexpected was something he mentioned just in passing. I asked how
come a big company like Canon doesn't include printing directly to
CD/DVDs like Epson does on their printer models?

The sales rep spilled the beans and what he told me, later verified
REALLY pissed me off. Now the title of this thread makes perfect
sense.

It turns out Canon printers and others too DO print on CD/DVDs and not
only do they, they do a better job then Epson. The problem is Epson
holds a patent on the "technology" and refuses to license it to Canon
for any of their printers sold in North America! GREED! In effect
Espon has cornered the market on pritners capable of printing on media
directly. Stop and think how insane United State patent laws are.
Epson is able to hide behind the law and claims patent "protection"
for some laughable little piece of plasic with a CD sized hole in that
can get pulled into the printer. That is almost as insane of some
company getting granted a patent to print on paper, oh wow how clever.
What a crock!

Thanksfully, the rest of the world isn't as anal as US law. The EU
(Eurpoean Union)in effect told Espon to screw itself and it won't
enfoce a US patent, so anybody buying a Canon printer throughout
Europe automatucally gets CD/DVD printing ability, which surpise, is
built-into most Canon printers INCLUDING those sold in the United
States!

You read that right boys and girls. Canon printers CAN print on CDs
and DVD, IF you make a simple change (pull off a piece of plastic that
blocks the input of CD/DVD tray) and update the firmware, then buy the
tray off one of several people selling them on Ebay and elsewhere for
a few bucks.

One good thing about the United States... FREE SPEECH. This got to
piss Epson off, they've been caught again screwing their biggest
marekt, North America. Well, my response to Espon is my middle finger
extended skywards. I will NEVER buy another Epson product and I
suggest no other America do either for this kind of naked greed. This
isn't that Canon oth others would pay the minor license fee, rather
that Epson wants to corner the market and thus resorts to sneaky
methods to achieve that goal. I HATE that kind of sneaky uncompetitive
unfairless.

People have a right to know what greedy bastards you are Epson, and
I'm not that happy with Canon either for not standing up to them and
fighting this in the US courts. As usual, when it comes to corporate
greed, the consumer loses.

Guess which new printer model I'm going to be buying soon? Hint, it
won't have a E in the name. Never again!
 
C

Cari \(MS-MVP\)

I found that info out a couple of months ago and couldn't wait to dump my
R200 for an ip4300. The 'hack' takes all of 10 seconds. Color is better,
speed is phenomenal. I only had the Epson for printing on DVDs....
 
M

MICHAEL

* Cari (MS-MVP):
I found that info out a couple of months ago and couldn't wait to dump
my R200 for an ip4300. The 'hack' takes all of 10 seconds. Color is
better, speed is phenomenal. I only had the Epson for printing on DVDs....

That's almost funny... if that had been a Microsoft product
discussed about being hacked, the self-righteous would have been
all over this post. Even funnier, it's an MVP talking about how
easy the hack was. Oh, the sweet irony.


-Michael
 
A

Adam Albright

* Cari (MS-MVP):

That's almost funny... if that had been a Microsoft product
discussed about being hacked, the self-righteous would have been
all over this post. Even funnier, it's an MVP talking about how
easy the hack was. Oh, the sweet irony.


-Michael

Its always like that. <giggle>

Technically, the hack isn't even illegal. You do NOTHING except remove
a little piece of plasic and the ROM reset is nothing more than
pushing a few button sequences on the printer. Nothing to download,
undo or add aside from the CD tray which is made and sold by Canon, so
it is more of a buyer education kind of thing.
 

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