1,001 useful things you can do with a DMCA: Number 65

According to The Register, “Lexmark has invoked the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act in a legal action against a firm that makes chips that permit third party toner cartridges to work in its printers.

The printer company is suing Static Control Components for violation of the Copyright Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act regarding the Static Control’s Smartek microchips. Normally litigants would use patent laws in such cases but here we see another example of the surprising applications of the DMCA.

In November stores used the DMCA to defend the copyright of pricing lists, now its been applied to printer cartridge microchips.”

“What next?” asks The Register. Just so.