It's no surprise the entertainment industry uses copyright law to protect its products. But a printer maker? Lexmark International (LXK ) is doing just that--and it could cost you money. If you have an Optra T620 laser office printer, you can . . .
It's no surprise the entertainment industry uses copyright law to protect its products. But a printer maker? Lexmark International (LXK ) is doing just that--and it could cost you money. If you have an Optra T620 laser office printer, you can buy a Lexmark-branded high-yield toner cartridge for $395. Or you can buy a remanufactured cartridge made by other companies for $170. Lexmark, which makes most of its money selling supplies--as do all printer makers--wants you to buy its toner. So it's using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA) to try to shut out rivals.

Congress rewrote copyright law with the stated intention of giving the owners of creative material, including music, books, and films, new weapons to fight the piracy made possible by digital media. Critics warned that the law was so broadly drawn that all sorts of companies might use it to stifle competition. Like most observers, I dismissed these warnings as paranoid ravings. But if Lexmark prevails in a lawsuit it has filed against Sanford (N.C.) chipmaker Static Control Components, their worst fears may come to pass.

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