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Computer printer-ink-drainage-ware

 Print or pay
  (-1)
(-1) 		  [vote for,
against]

Cartridge ink is consumable and more expensive than hardisk space and printer paper. Computer user will take notice to see it drain. After software trial period, it will issue a call to the printer to print out a full page registration form, in solid full color preferably double sided in excellent quality. This will really be costly and drain printer resources. Upon receipt of payment, it will stop this physical reminder. Let's say the software costs $100 but you have stated that a 30% discount is automatically granted subject to user responding to reminder in timely manner. If the user respond after $30 worth of ink is gone, both sides have nothing to lose. This idea can be extended to an endless kind of hardware or software call.Just make sure you dont connect a life support machine to a PC.
—cocobk, Apr 16 2004

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       So would I be required to have a high-quality expensive-ink printer attached to my computer to use software which otherwise has no need for a printer? Maybe I'll just plug in my old 9-pin dot matrix which I've had since I bought a commodore64 back in '89. (OK this is sad. It's still plugged in, right under my HP colorjet (4 years old, but still suits my needs.) and gets plenty of use (more than the color printer) printing out blocks of code (on form-feed paper no less, which, sadly, is getting harder to find) while I'm debugging.) I've gone through several color printers which have for one reason or another stopped functioning, but the old dot matrix just keeps chugging along. A few drops of stamp pad ink in the ribbon cartridge every few days and she's good to go.
—Freefall, Apr 16 2004
   

       Not likely to work on me since I keep the printer turned off unless I plan to print. If I observed an app printing without my request I'd be careful to delete the queued documents before they waste my money.   

       Some persons working for a business may not care how much it costs their employer in print cartridges.   

       Finally, I don't understand punishing the user and profiting the print cartridge manufacturer. The software developer gets no direct benefit and their reputation suffers in the process. More annoying than pop-up ads (if that's possible).
—RooneDitoff, Apr 16 2004
   

       it's a hamfisted way of enforcing shareware registration periods, like Winzip's "you are on day 796 of your 30 day trial" window. better to just refuse to open after trial period. negating this is possible, but harder than stopping a print job. -
—stilgar, May 27 2004
   

       ExtortionWare sounds like something Microsoft would invent.   

       Someone would soon after write a "fake expensive color printer" hack that added the AstaLaVista.box.PRINTER to your list of available printers and set it as default. The ExtortionWare would "Print" to the nothing driver as a result, and continue to work.   

       Thank Kaos for Hackers.
—oldvan, May 28 2004
   


 

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