Pardon the semi Britney Spears pun there in the title. Do you guys remember that a year ago HP forced a printer firmware update that blocked 3rd party inkjet cartridges? Well, that that time they played dumb right?. Well, after a storm of critique they pulled the firmwares and allowed the 3rd party cartridges again by disabling that DRM. Until recently.

Reports show that HP once again invoked firmware updates that block 3rd party (cheaper non HP / refill) cartridges, forcing you guys to purchase the original and seriously overprices HP cartridges. Let's face it, by the liter their ink is more expensive compared to the most expensive champagne you can find, Ink cartridges are also known as that 'other' black gold'.

It seems HP is making the very same mistake as last year. In several OfficeJet-printers HP now enabled a "Dynamic Security" function. If you use that non HP cartridge, your printer will report it back as a defective one and that it needs a replacement. German etailer 123inkt already received dozens of reports on their cartridges. Currently 123inkt claims that over 34 printer models have been reported to show this behaviour in the HP OfficeJet and OfficeJet Pro series. I seriously think it is time for some EU legislation and penalties to kick in as that is not a mistake anymore.

We advise that you do not update your printer firmware, so take it off the web. If yours already had the update - a description of this feature may be found here. And there is a fix.

• HP provides a new firmware update on its HP support page, that disables HP’s Dynamic Security Feature .
• Go to HP’s support page and search for a firmware update for your printer model. Download and install the new firmware.

Oops we're doing it again and this time we're not that innocent? Current models reported are:

HP Blocking 3rd Party Cartridges : Oops We are Doing it Again!