Keurig anti-competitive DRM hacked in a few hours

( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

While I believe coffee pods/Kcups are anathema to coffee, to the environment and to our pocketbooks, it does my heart good to read this post at CBC yesterday morning:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/busines…

When Keurig’s CEO announced last fall that its next model would feature digital rights management that would render unlicensed pods useless, Pigott took note. He obtained a Keurig 2.0 model even before it was on store shelves and assembled a small team to examine the device and its K-cups to understand the technology.

“We figured it out in an afternoon,” he crows, noting that it took another two months for Club Coffee to develop its own workaround.  

This same battle hasn’t worked for Nespresso in France:

Meantime, Keurig has surely taken note of what happened to Nespresso in France. The government launched a probe into anti-competitive behaviour, and in April Nespresso agreed to stop trying to prevent rivals from making knockoff pods for its machines.

 

Over 700 comments on this article the first day…and I don’t think more than a couple were pro-Keurig. Methinks the goose that laid the golden egg that was (read ‘has been’) Green Mt Coffee Roasters has chosen that path that wonderboy CEO O’Neill brought with him to Vermont from CocaCola, which is:

more plastic crap,

less taste,

more burgeoning landfills.
 

Thanks a lot, Brian.

See previously:

http://www.greenmountaindaily…. and previously,

http://www.greenmountaindaily….

3 thoughts on “Keurig anti-competitive DRM hacked in a few hours

  1. Vermont’s economy, and many of its emerging growth (job) generators, sell the “Vermont Brand.” and all of the wholesome images that go with it.

    Might as well complete the picture. Nothing wrong with broadening the scope of a niche market.  What could possibly go wrong?

    Seriously, I can’t imagine that A Blooming Vermont-Based Plastic Landfill Enterprise will impede Vermont’s emerging and growing niche agricultural business. Right?

    Think about it,

    — Vermont has entrepreneurs, those whose jobs depend on the fruits of long-term planning. The work, investment and innovation make our products attractive, but Vermont businesses shrewdly leverage the “Vermont Brand” at its accompanying image. How can Keurig’s most recent short-term foot-shooting experiment cause a ripple in that formula.

    — products ranging from Hops to Organic Milk; or Vermont exported value added products such as cheese, craft beer or distilled spirits have nothing to fear, right?

    — Vermont’s products and the years of hard work, planning and investment that goes into them along with a boost from “Vermont Branding” — no risk there, right?

    — The “Vermont Brand,” helps give innovated products a boost, it attracts new investment AND gives Vermont a steady stream of national media attention. What could POSSIBLY go wrong, or Gods forbid, tamper with the Vermont image.

    Seriously, how can one (giant national company) undermine the business of selling the Vermont Image?


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