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DRM: Coming to a Coffee Maker Near You

posted by LaminatorX on Monday March 03 2014, @07:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the Java-should-be-open dept.

r00t writes:

"Taking a page out of Lexmark playbook, the Keurig company, famous for it's one-cup coffee making system, now comes with new and improved 100% DRM. Apparently, Keurig is upset over re-usable third-party 'coffee pods' which allow the consumer to escape the Keurig throw-away models which carry a retail price 5% to 25% more. Keurig's CEO, Brian Kelly referred to the move as 'game-changing performance.' Perhaps this will finally be the year of Linux on the Coffe Maker?"

 
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by EvilSS on Monday March 03 2014, @07:21PM

    by EvilSS (1456) on Monday March 03 2014, @07:21PM (#10318)

    Is this for their K-Cup line or their new Vue and Revo systems? The new ones were created to get around the K-Cup patent ending and IIRC one of them (or both?) were supposed to use RFIDs or something like that to "read" each pod and adjust temp and other parameters based on what it was. AFAIK rivals are locked out anyway since the new pods are patent encumbered to begin with.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Monday March 03 2014, @07:28PM

    by GungnirSniper (1671) on Monday March 03 2014, @07:28PM (#10329) Journal

    Why use RFID when proprietary bar codes would do the same for less cost?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by EvilSS on Monday March 03 2014, @07:42PM

      by EvilSS (1456) on Monday March 03 2014, @07:42PM (#10338)

      So they can protect their market when the patent expires on this pod design, duh! Also, given the circumstances it may be more reliable. The area where the pods go does get a little dirty, at least in mine.

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by snick on Monday March 03 2014, @07:28PM

    by snick (1408) on Monday March 03 2014, @07:28PM (#10331)

    K kup kost breakdown:

    IP Lawyers: 70%
    Marketing: 20%
    RFID chip: 5%
    Other packaging 3%
    Coffee: 2%

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Fnord666 on Tuesday March 04 2014, @12:24AM

    by Fnord666 (652) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @12:24AM (#10433)

    Is this for their K-Cup line or their new Vue and Revo systems? The new ones were created to get around the K-Cup patent ending and IIRC one of them (or both?) were supposed to use RFIDs or something like that to "read" each pod and adjust temp and other parameters based on what it was.

    That's interesting since Braun's Tassimo brewers have been doing this for quite some time.

  • (Score: 1) by MachineShedFred on Tuesday March 04 2014, @04:39PM

    by MachineShedFred (1656) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @04:39PM (#10936)

    Of course, they could skip the bullshit expensive and over-engineered use of RFID and use a damn barcode, which would be insanely cheaper and easier to implement. But, then you can't DRM the living shit out of it. Barcode-programmed coffee data can be read quite easily, and reverse engineered with a bit of time, a stopwatch, and a thermometer.