That is literally what they are doing through printer firmware. They are literally preventing you from printing freely.
As I discovered when my UK printer was accidentally shipped with US ink. The printer permanently locked itself and refused to accept any HP ink sold in the UK.
Will never buy anything from HP ever again.
It'd be way too easy to claim that the ink is past it's best-by date, and that they want you to have a trouble free experience with their ink, so they are disabling that bad expired ink.
Plus, since it's a consumable, it's much harder to return a defective ink cartridge once the packaging has been opened.
Actually, it's exactly like that. HP cartridges can and do expire, and printers will refuse to work with them even though they are still full and functional.
My dad's printer is affected by this news, and between this and other recent issues it's having I doubt he'll ever buy a new HP printer again. He's been a lifelong (dare I say lifetime) customer since buying his HP 12C calculator in the 80s, and has owned only HP printers since his first DeskJet 697c in '96.
Buy a non-shit brand that doesn't connect to the internet, eg. something from Brother without internet connectivity.
On the other hand, I have a Brother laser printer that's still working after 17 years - and they still manufacture toner cartridges for it. (It's so old that it has a parallel port[1] in addition to a USB port.)
I was thinking about this a few weeks ago because I found an identical printer at a thrift store for $4. I didn't get it but thought it would be nice to be able to keep using my stash of 3rd-party cartridges.
I also have a dot matrix printer with enough ribbon to last me a decade or so. So I really don't need to look for another printer for a while.
I've got a couple of pre-2008 HP scanners and laser printers that I intend to keep going as long as at all possible, because the alternatives are just so horrible. Fortunately, they're pretty repairable, and all the consumables are still reasonable. And, frankly, I don't print that much any more. SCSI is getting slightly more interesting to support, but not unreasonable.
That first DeskJet lasted us around a decade until we replaced it with a couple of DeskJet 3500s that didn't need a parallel port and were cheaper than new ink. I still have one of those squirreled away just in case.
Those printers are refreshingly simple, with no screen or wifi and only one button (power) and one port (USB).
Fool me twice, can't get fooled again except ink.
This is a common saying in Texas, apparently.
Except they’ve done exactly that. Twice. Issues as “security” updates no less.
It is exactly like that. If you unenroll a printer from Instant Ink, it will no longer accept the cartridges provided under that program.
I use the service and like it - for photo prints, where the per-page pricing model works in my favor; for documents, I have a monochrome laser. But outside my specific and very narrow use case, it is a terrible deal.