As reported in BNA and here, a Georgia woman is organizing a class-action lawsuit against HP for using a chip on printer cartridges to "prematurely register ink depletion and to render a cartridge unusable through the use of a built-in expiration date that is not revealed to the consumer."
Everyone knows the ink level claimed by HP is inaccurate. I actually like this feature because it gives you some warning that your cartridge is almost out of ink. Of course, this could have been done with a more accurate warning, but I don't have a problem with this as is. At least for my HP, ink warnings are minimally annoying and fairly accurate.
As for the expiration date, I realized while reading this article this morning, that this might have actually happened to me a few weeks ago, naturally at a quite inconvenient time. I just assumed my near-full cartridge was defective. It never even occurred to me that perhaps the license to the code in the chip had expired. I believed that I had purchased a physical object containing a physical amount of ink that I had the right to use in my printer. I wish I still had the terms that came with my cartridge, so I could see what I actually contracted to buy. If this happened to me, with a cartridge bought about 1 1/2 years ago as a back-up, I can't wait to see the outrageous stories in the woodwork of cartridges voided by sitting on retailer shelves or in desk drawers like mine.
At the same time, HP has a real interest in keeping consumers from refilling cartridges perpetually or 'recycling' them to after-market refillers. Is this interest fair? In this case, I'm conflicted. HP hasn't commented yet; it is possible they are not even doing this. If they are, this raises tying issues, copyright issues, and R&D issues. With better disclosure--say, a window at installation or a stamp on the cartridge, your cartridge will expire in 2008--and a reasonable time limit--say, three or four years--on the cartridges, I side with HP. I agree something has to change in the status quo, if not legally certainly ethically, but balancing these interests is difficult.
HP had an envelope to return the cartridge for 'recycling' in the box for my replacement (official) HP cartridge; I wonder if they replace the chip or just throw out the whole expired mess with no recycling at all. I was so irritated at HP for my defective (but probably actually expired) cartridge, that I donated it to a local school fund-raising collection instead. Unfortunately, that expired chip probably made it pretty useless to the children too.