Recently I received an update to my HP printer. It ended up telling me that I could not run without buying more ink from HP. Now in the user manual it clearly states, that is the user manual and the conditions under which I purchased their printer to begin with, that I could run on black ink only. Furthermore there is a setting under printer properties that clearly states select grey scale to run in black ink only. So as a contract to me by virtue of the conditions I bought under and the properties which confirm the grey scale black ink only to run settings were intended I get this crap from HP. Extortion would be another way of stating this. The warning from HP I had from the printer after I installed much cheaper ink cartridges stated that any warranty would be voided by their use but did not prohibit their use. Legally I am sure they can’t since as a condition of buying this Officejet Pro 8600 I did not have to sign or commit to HP only ink.
OK today I get this email from the ink cartridge people. HP sends you an innocent looking update which does not specify what is in there and does not allow you to select what parts of it you might want like Microsoft does. You get the whole chilona. Today I and every other HP 8600 printer buyer are being told we HAVE to do things we never signed up for and did not ask for. Arbitrarily and after the sale HP decides they want to make more money and make it in ways customers can’t run from. It is the capability to squeeze their customer base for more money that is just something no company seems to be able to resist over time no matter what the promises if they can do it. You see if you give people this kind of power over you it WILL be used sooner or later.
Is it to much of a stretch for you to see how this type of thing will come your way too if you cede the idea of permanent seats of software for rental? Where the conditions can and will change over time and there you are. Stuck with something that won’t work if you do not pay to play. All the power and might of legal hostage taking will be underlying your rental plans. When you have data created and locked under chattel securities and usable only with further payments that are subject to change with benefits to you subject to change why would you even go there? Here is one for you. You think data storage is free? You think there wont be a day where with cloud run software your stuff won’t be held to a cloud server and they wont charge you for the use of your data each month for the program and then the new server farm rental fees? Where they will force updates on you that will change the conditions to be different from when you signed up and you can blow it out your rear end if you don’t like it?
I want you to sit down and think about the ways you can come up with to screw customers over if you were in charge of a situation where where you could force pay to play. And change the rules to your benefit whenever. The company you signed up with today may well mean all the good things they say. Then like with Solid Edge the good guy leaves and utter junk takes their place. Or they get sued and now have to raise lots of cash. Or they get bought out (don’t think it can’t happen to whatever you currently use) and the new guys have saddled everything with more debt that has to be paid for. Just as soon as corporate leadership determines they need to change how they deal with you and in direct proportion to how much power you have given them over you, you are their hostage with no recourse. Except to leave entirely and if you have years of data locked up with these mercenary companies will you ever be able to?
Gee Dave it’s just printer ink don’t blow it all so far out of proportion. I mean after all no software company will EVER change the rules on you like HP did.
Isn’t it just peachy that software companies are doing this to secure their stable future? Without regard to your future or care for your expenses or profitability or your secure stable future? Where you better pay them before you pay your light bill or lose accumulated years of work and the ability to use that work? Am I wrong about this? Can you prove me wrong about this?
Machined Audio Horn Lens 
I know you’re no longer following what DS / SolidWorks is doing, but your post today is very apropos of a recent uprising in the SW community over subscriptions as well.
https://forum.solidworks.com/thread/99007
Bystander, do you have a link that does not require registration stuff to access this post? I suspect the extortion Dassault plans will be worse than the one from Autodesk. I make this statement based upon the ludicrous prices Dassault has for it’s cloud SW add-ons and replacement programs gearing up for the days of Catia Lite. I hope the push back against pay to play will be profound with both Autodesk and Dassault. If it isn’t there will be a heavy price to pay in the future when freedom of choice and autonomy is removed.
Sitting here thinking about this. The number one comment I hear from SW users when I ask them why don’t they leave is legacy data. They don’t seem to grasp the idea that they are going to have to learn either Catia Lite in the future or have to rent their data back each month from someone whose cloud paradigm is out to squeeze them for as much as they can get. Uncomfortable choices are heading towards those legacy guys even if they do stay and at some point in time they wont be able to access their data unless they pay to play if they do stay. At that time they will have lost ownership of their data which will bring another legacy they will have to work with.
Hi Dave. Why I havent abandonned SW yet? Well like an old car it does the job but I am not spending money on it just running it into the ground. The way I see it the world is due for a massive economic reset and the outcome is very uncertain. I would rather hold my pennies now and find the best solution after dust settles. Will the CAD dinosaurs still be around? In a way I hope not. These companies are more interested in self preservation than helping their customers. There are actually only a few things that I consider would be *nice* to have since I dropped subs after SW2009. Nothing vital and certainly not worth the subs. SW2016 is another lame release but its well presented so not that many will notice. Yet another GUI and renderer. Looks good so it must be good, right? Perhaps DS should introduce their own branded icecream. I am certainly not going to pay corporate welfare every year for the likes of that though. Unfortunately 99% of SW users are castrated and brain dead however so DS will get away with it. As an alternative Solidedge looked good until the rogue outbreak of confidence at Huntsville was exterminated by Siemens and with it killed all potential sales. Onshape would have been another obvious choice in kinship with parasolid but they arent making what I want to buy. Ugly and clumbsy interface and only cloud based. IMO all of the people running these companies have completely lost the plot in one way or another. I am waiting and looking for a genuinely better solution to come along.
Hi Neil,
I agree and I think it is time to watch your money. I think Dassault and Autodesk see this too and it is why they want to force the chattel economic model on customers. They want to survive but don’t seem to be to worried if you do. I will say this about Autodesk though. At least at this time it appears they will be a lot less mercenary about how much they want to confiscate compared to the signals Dassault is giving their SW customers. I saw no improvements for SE ST8 and I hear next year will be worse. I don’t need support anymore and they are not giving me new features I can use so goodbye. Like you I can work with my CAD program on a supported Win7 OS until 2020.
I think the most exciting company right now is Autodesk but my priniciple concern today is making parts. I hope they get on the ball with inventor. HSM is top knotch and I believe the missing capabilities are around the corner. The big deal for me is that we have a guy who cuts and designs and has turned in his own requests for improvements and bugs in charge of Autodesk. This is the single biggest hope for the future in the CADCAM world and the only place where a real user and maker is now in a place of influence. But that rotten subscription thing really really bothers me.
Maybe the Halcyon days of CAD greatness are over. I don’t see anything new and the Synchronous Tech from SE has reached a dead end development wise since the last two versions are mostly re-arranging the deck chairs.
HA HA a new render program!! How many now and how worthless and a total indication that Dassault has no intent to really solve SW problems. It is exactly the same thing as Siemens SE blathering about some Surface Pro doo-dad interface like it is a genuine improvement. Yes the rogue breakout has been subsumed into the belly of the beast never to be seen again. It is all over for SE and I had all the tools I ever needed in ST7 when the terminal stage set in for SE.
The SW guys are going to notice in the near future whether they want to or not. When they get shoved sideways into much more expensive Catia Lite and have to deal with legacy file translator problems anyway they light will dawn.