Your Next Ink Cartridge: Encrption Locked

My thimble-sized ink cartridge from HP costs $22 for black, 27 for color, and can be blown out with a 35 page color project. If I buy Office Depot's version, I save a big $4.... If I try remanufactured cartridges next time, the printer will tell me to piss off..... because it knows its not an HP cartridge... Bastards!

Hewlett-Packard, the biggest PC maker in the world, actually makes the most profit from its printer business: 46 percent of its total earnings in the most recent fiscal quarter were generated by its Imaging and Printing Group. And ink is a key.
Cryptography is a method of encrypting data so that only a specific, private key can unlock, or decrypt, the information. It's used in everything from credit cards to digital media. CRI plans to create a secure chip that will allow only certain ink cartridges to communicate with certain printers. Starting in early 2008.