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       Legendary RepairTuber and repair rights activist Louis Rossmann shared a new video expressing his surprise and disappointment that Brother has become an “anti-consumer printer company.” Rossmann’s Wikipedia page has more information on how Brother has become an “anti-consumer printer company,” with two major issues being that the new firmware disables third-party toners and blocks color registration (on color devices).
       Rossman is clearly frustrated by Brother’s tight-lipped approach to aftermarket ink, admitting that he used to tell HP or Canon printer owners who had long suffered from cartridge DRM issues: “Buy a $100 Brother laser printer and all your problems will be solved.”
       Unfortunately, “Brother is in business now,” mused a well-known RepairTuber. He admitted that if he were asked to recommend a printer right now, he would be at a loss. However, his recent experience with Brother has led him to keep his current output device offline and not upgrade it.
       As mentioned in the introduction, Rossmann has found two major issues for Brother printer users with recent firmware updates. First, models that previously used third-party ink may not work with genuine cartridges after the update. Brother doesn’t always warn you about these updates, so Rossmann recommends keeping printers offline whenever possible. He also believes that it’s best to keep printers offline, and given these consumer-unfriendly updates, “I highly recommend disabling the updates.”
       Another consumer-unfriendly issue that Rossmann highlighted concerns color devices. He cited a report from a Brother MFP user who found that after an update, the color calibration feature was no longer compatible with aftermarket inks. These inks had worked fine before, but if the update prevents the printer from calibrating with these aftermarket inks, the cheap cartridges are essentially useless.
       Worse, in a particularly damning aspect of the story, Rossman said that older versions of printer firmware are often removed from the website, meaning users can’t roll back if they discover unwanted new “features” after an update.
       While Rossman admits he can’t do anything about these machinations in the printing industry, he says it’s important to document these changes because they show that individual property rights are disappearing.
       Mark Tyson is the news editor at Tom’s Hardware. He covers all aspects of computer technology, from business to semiconductor design to the latest gadgets.
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