Aftermarket Batteries May Be Locked Out

[boBquincy]

Friend or foe: Battery-authentication ICs separate
good guys from bad:

http://www.edn.com/article/CA6301616.html?nid=2431&rid=403881835

I can see arguments for both sides here but there is a good possibility that tomorrow's camera and charger will not accept aftermarket batteries.


boB

[dpastern]

That might be what they'll attempt, but they won't win it in the courts if it's legally challenged. I believe Epson lost a very similar style battle in the courts in the past year. Any such endorsement of technology from any government is disgraceful, it removes free competition, and encourages monopolies and anti competitiveness. And in every instance, the customer loses out. I like choice. I don't like being told "you MUST". In my honest opinion, this is why laws such as DRM and particularly the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) MUST be abolished. I'm a FSF (Free Software Foundation) guy, and a RMS (Richard Stallman proponent) so I'm particularly interested in these areas. It's also why I use GNU/Linux - Microsoft is a convicted monopolist and I have no intention of supporting their business practices. I don't support criminals.

I've said my 2.2c inc. GST worth on the subject and will now shut up :)

Dave

[primoz]

Unfortunately everything is possible in Europe. I just heard week or two ago, Canon managed to win lawsuit against few companies who were importing their cameras to Europe other ways and not through official Canon channels... basicaly this is what I understand as grey market. Ok I heard just one side of story so I don't know how it really was, but from that what I heard it's suppose to be breach of trademarks, copyrights and I don't know what else. So I wouldn't be too surprised if stuff like that would be perfectly possible in Europe. Oh well... at least my dentist is still "free", if I already have to pay 3 times higher price for camera... because this way it suppose to have right cables and not dangerous manuals or whatever they stated in that lawsuit.

[dpastern]

There is no way that they'd win a case like that based on breach of copyright or trademark. Not unless the European courts are taking kickbacks from Canon - happens to politicans the world over. They could possibly argue on restriction of trade, but then, so could the grey market importers. In the end, the customer has rights. By choosing to stop grey market imports, this will adversely affect the customer. Canon, of course, like most large companies only really cares about it's profit margins and shareholders, hence screwing customers with this type of attitude. Arguments about warranties etc are moot - if the reseller clearly statest that it is a grey market import, and not covered by Canon warranty, then what is the problem (as long as they of course provide warranty care for the warranty period in lieu of the official Canon warranty). As a customer, I don't care who fixes it, as long as the warranty is honoured and my unit fixed satisfactorily. Good technicians just don't work for Canon I might add - other companies do have them as well! Of course, Canon would like you to believe differently - only Canon technicians can competently fix a Canon camera!! That's a load of bollocks...

Dave

[sam walker]

I live in Everready town Cleveland Ohio I recently went rechargeable battery shhopping at Walmart. I was used to paying $10-12 for a 4 pack. It was nice to see bats ar $6.50/4 from Chinese Sacar. I bought them,charged them they are a good product.:D
Sam

[DocFrankenstein]

There will always be a way to bypass it.

[DavidW]

There is no way that they'd win a case like that based on breach of copyright or trademark.
In this particular case, European law grants a great deal of rights to the trademark holder. The trademark holder has rights to restrict grey importing in the EU - the landmark case was probably Tesco Stores Ltd versus Levi Strauss & Co.

Levi Strauss won a court battle that prevented Tesco from sourcing jeans elsewhere in Europe more cheaply than they were available in the UK from the official importer. See this story from BBC News Online (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2163561.stm) for more information. More details are at this site (http://www.lkshields.ie/htmdocs/publications/pub114.htm), which is the site of a firm of Irish solicitors, though, in this case, the key rulings are in the European Court of Justice, not the UK High Court.



David
(who is not a lawyer and is not offering legal advice)