[friend_and_foe]

You really buy into this nonsense?

Imagine you buy a can of turtle wax that locks after 20 opens. "We don't sell wax! We sell car waxes!" A water hose that sells sips of water.

You're buying ink. Just because HP wants to market it as something different doesn't make their bullshit true. Unless they're shipping you a printed page, they're selling you ink and then charging you per use, their bottom line doesn't list pages printed, it lists profit per cartridge. People just don't like buying an object and paying for it like it's a service, because it's an obvious scam. Ink is a product.