Sadly, not for consumer inkjets like this one.

Printers are the worst. Theyโ€™re unreliable, they guzzle reportedly $12,000-a-gallon ink, and their manufacturers have been known to use dirty tricks, scare tactics, and DRM to strongly encourage you to buy cartridges exclusively from them. But Canon is now getting a taste of its own medicine. Some of Canonโ€™s own toner cartridges are now being detected as fakes โ€” and theyโ€™re forcing the company to teach customers how to bypass its own DRM (via Techdirt).

According to Canonโ€™s own support website (Europe, Germany), the company is โ€œcurrently facing challenges in sourcing certain electronic components that are used in our consumables for our multifunction printers.โ€ In other words, Canonโ€™s been hit by the great chip shortage, too โ€” only the components Canonโ€™s missing arenโ€™t powering video game consoles or your Teslaโ€™s USB port; theyโ€™re the DRM for its own toner cartridges.

Semiconductor shortage leads to Canon selling toner cartridges without chips which usually identify them as genuine, so Canon now instructs customers on how to override the warnings for using “counterfeit” cartridges https://t.co/rqcmXckPFp

โ€” Nils Adermann (@naderman) January 7, 2022

But wait, thereโ€™s a simple solution, says Canon! See all our warnings about how your toner cartridge might be โ€œmalfunctioningโ€? Ignore them. Just hit the close button, and youโ€™ll be good to go:

Image: Canon
Canon explains how to bypass its own DRM: just ignore the warning and hit the close button.

If youโ€™re hoping to experience an approved-bypassing-of-DRM on your inkjet home printer, though, you might be out of luck โ€” weโ€™re only seeing Canonโ€™s big workplace multifunction printers (MFP) on the list of โ€œaffected modelsโ€ at Canonโ€™s website.

As Techdirt points out, Canon is currently facing down a lawsuit involving some alleged behavior that seems even more egregious than the typical DRM tricks: Queens resident David Leacraft claims his Canon Pixma All-in-One doesnโ€™t even scan documents unless it has ink. We checked, and Canon hasnโ€™t yet issued a response to that lawsuit in court, but multiple posts on Canonโ€™s official support forums suggest that the ridiculous restriction is real.

โ€œThe PIXMA MG6320 must have all ink tanks installed in the printer and they must all contain ink in order to use the functions of the printer. Replacing the empty ink tank with a new ink tank will resolve this issue. There is no workaround for this,โ€ wrote one rep in 2020.

โ€œIf you are getting a โ€˜Ink Outโ€™ error, you will not be able to use the unit until the ink is replaced,โ€ they wrote in 2016.

The lawsuit is seeking class action status, and weโ€™ll let you know if it goes anywhere.

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