[German]Users of a printer from the Japanese manufacturer Epson might experience an unpleasant surprise. On certain devices, a message suddenly appears that a "part in the device" has reached the end of its life. The printer still works, but is deactivated by firmware. For Epson, the reason for the message and the deactivation is the built-in ink sponge, which is full. The deactivation of the printer is probably to prevent ink from leaking out and then causing damage to the customer due to printer ink. The problem with this approach is that it smells of planned obsolescence, since the deactivation of the device is probably done via firmware and based on a counter for the number of printouts.
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