German tech pub c’t magazin reports that Xerox is now requiring customers not only to use their toner cartridges, but they even have to be from a specific region to work.
Reporter Georg Schnurer tells the story of Mattias, who bought a Xerox WorkCentre 6505DN for his small business only to learn that the device would not accept Xerox toner cartridges that could be bought cheaper in other countries. The device locked in on whatever region it detected on the first cartridge installed. Trying any kind of workaround or installing the “wrong” region-encoded cartridge will brick the device. (via Techdirt)
Image: CC by Isaac Bowen In B4 pedants… That’s right, that image is not a Xerox toner cartridge, but it’s a lovely CC-BY-SA image that is not DRMed by region.