Keurig Stock Drops, Says It Was Wrong About DRM Coffee Pods 369
An anonymous reader writes: Green Mountain (Keurig) stock dropped by 10% this morning after a brutal earnings report. The reason? CNN Money reports that DRM has weakened sales of their Keurig 2.0. CEO Brian Kelley admits, "Quite honestly, we were wrong." Last year Green Mountain decided to make their new coffee machines work with licensed pods only. The company says they now plan to license more outside brands, and bring back “My K-Cup” reusable filters.
Well duh..... (Score:2, Troll)
Re:Well duh..... (Score:5, Funny)
FTFY
Yep, they were... (Score:5, Insightful)
I have been a loyal user of K-Cups for years now...
I will never buy a DRM coffee machine...
The whole idea is just stupid. I get that they are trying to make money from every cup sold, just like the razor model, but frankly that is a boardroom fantasy...
---
The same issue with music happened... once Amazon started selling DRM free music, I started buying, now having a collection of hundreds of "CDs" all downloaded to all my devices.
I don't pirate any of them, nor do I share them outside my family. Sell me a product I control at a reasonable price and I'll pay you money.
Simple.
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Funny)
That's why I use a French press and a straight razor. Both will still be working in 25 years.
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Funny)
How the hell do you get the razors to press?!?!?! I keep breaking the urn and my fingers are bleeding like crazy!!!!1!
The other way round (Score:5, Funny)
The French Press is to prepare his skin for the straight razor - by compressing shaving foam directly into his pores, hair literally leaps from follicles into the path of the blade.
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Funny)
Exactly. And they are EMP proof. Bring on the apocalypse, I will be shaved and enjoying my coffee.
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sounds like you prefer a hot cup of beard-coffee in the morning?
me, I like my coffee whisker-free.
(whiskey is ok, on occasion, though).
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Funny)
funny you should mention that. did you know that there is a town in western australia, Mercy, where the people have entirely different tastes in their hot beverages from their fellow Aussies. seems that while tea brewed from Koala fur is not very popular in Australia, it does have a small following. however, as one might expect, most aussies like to brew the fur in a french press or melitta type pot, thus keeping the pieces of fur out of their hot drink. This is not true in Mercy. they brew the fur in an open pot of water, and serve the resultant brew straight, with plenty of fur in it. Thus, the Koala tea of Mercy is not strained.....
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...and why I do not shave and drink tea.
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My doctor told me to drink a cup of tea after a hot bath...
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Funny)
I could never finish the bath before it got cold.
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Funny)
My doctor told me to not look away and dont blink.
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole idea is just stupid. I get that they are trying to make money from every cup sold, just like the razor model, but frankly that is a boardroom fantasy...
Exactly why I didn't buy one of these machines. I thought they were totally a-holes for making this move, but I gotta hand it to them, it's a rare thing for a business to admit that they were wrong. Good on them!
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Insightful)
Except it's not really a good lesson to the marketplace if all is forgiven.... "Try DRM, if it works, great. If not, your former customers will forgive you and all's good."
They should not be congratulated for recognizing how stupid they are. Let's congratulate and support the coffee maker companies who DIDN'T try this.
We need to engender fear in the heart of every executive who would even CONSIDER this insanity. So I say fuck them-- let their company suffer from their idiocy and let others learn from their failure.
If this news makes you want to reconsider a keurig machine, re-reconsider. There are plenty of other great alternatives. And that goes for printer makers and anyone else who's thinking about going in this direction.
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Except it's not really a good lesson to the marketplace if all is forgiven.... "Try DRM, if it works, great. If not, your former customers will forgive you and all's good."
They should not be congratulated for recognizing how stupid they are. Let's congratulate and support the coffee maker companies who DIDN'T try this.
We need to engender fear in the heart of every executive who would even CONSIDER this insanity. So I say fuck them-- let their company suffer from their idiocy and let others learn from their failure.
If this news makes you want to reconsider a keurig machine, re-reconsider. There are plenty of other great alternatives. And that goes for printer makers and anyone else who's thinking about going in this direction.
In other words, you're advocating to never forgive them for their mistakes. If you can lead a huge multinational business and never make a single mistake, ever, then congratulations to you, but the rest of us are only human. The idea may have been stupid, yes, but everyone screws up at some points in their life. If they continue to make these choices, then yes, I'm sure people will switch, but one failed marketing line shouldn't prevent you from ever using their coffee makers again. Seems a shame to lose a
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not an issue of a mere mistake. It's primarily a bad business decision, but also a very cynical one. I can forgive the bad business decision...companies make those all the time. It's the TYPE of business decision it was, which was an attempt to hijack choice away from consumers, which affects people personally when they use this machine for their coffee. That's something people will have a hard time forgiving.
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Insightful)
It was greed. The old saying goes: You can sheer a sheep many times, but you can only skin it once.
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Insightful)
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There needs to be _punishment_ for this.
There will be. As long as they include DRM, less people will buy their coffeemakers, because they don't want to worry about whether a K-cup is licensed or not. They can either be happy selling the coffeemakers or they can blow their coffee out their arse. I mean, fuck a Keurig crap coffee anyway, but still. I wouldn't buy a DRM coffee bean to put into my grinder, either.
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In other words, you're advocating to never forgive them for their mistakes. If you can lead a huge multinational business and never make a single mistake, ever, then congratulations to you, but the rest of us are only human. The idea may have been stupid, yes, but everyone screws up at some points in their life. If they continue to make these choices, then yes, I'm sure people will switch, but one failed marketing line shouldn't prevent you from ever using their coffee makers again. Seems a shame to lose a very convenient and otherwise decent coffee maker over a petty grudge - although, since I don't own one, I am admittedly only assuming it's convenient.
Well some of still believe huge multinational businesses aren't human beings therefore do not need or deserve forgiveness.
If a business dies, another one will take over (or do you still buy your drygoods from FW woolworths and not Amazon). Sure it might be a shame that some people lose their jobs, but it's not like we a shunning another human being from society where they starve and die. I'm not advocating holding petty grudges, but I'm saying we need not anthropomorphize corporations. Corporations are s
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This isn't just a "mistake", DRM is an abhorrent violation of the most fundamental consumer rights. The shattered and flayed corpses of companies that go down that road should be left impaled along the roadways as a warning to the next TEN GENERATIONS not to fuck with this.
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Insightful)
In other words, you're advocating to never forgive them for their mistakes.
How about we forgive them when they fire the people responsible for "mistakenly" deciding to intentionally screw their customers?
Re: Yep, they were... (Score:4, Insightful)
We aren't advocating not forgiving the company, we are advocating making an example of the company so that the other psychopaths see there are real, severe consequences to this kind of behavior.
Is that fair to GM? Maybe not, but neither is the rest of reality, and it is better for the rest of us that it is that way.
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh hell, I just noticed this in the article: Keurig plans to bring back the My K-cup accessory to allow customers to brew other brands of coffee. Okay, but what about "unofficial" k-cups? I like to use k-cups that don't have the DRM, and I rarely use my own coffee grounds in the My K-cup accessory. Noticeably absent is them saying you can use non-DRM k-cups. Then again, reporters are idiots so they may not have bothered learning the difference between the My k-cup which allows you to use grounds vs non-DRM k-cups. But if they still don't accept non-DRM k-cups, then fuck 'em!
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Informative)
Well actually, they were literally admitting they were wrong. Literally.
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Insightful)
I will never buy a DRM coffee machine...
Unless you're a prostitute, don't fuck your customer.
You can get away with DRM on DVDs because consumers don't understand the tech. The phallus is invisible.
You can't get away with DRM on a plastic cup with coffee grounds in it. The consumers UNDERSTAND that product, and KNOW you're fucking them. The phallus is very much visible.
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Funny)
Or accountant, or lawyer. Bonus for those who fucked their accountant and got their prostitute to do their tax return.
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It's very well understood that DVDs can't be copied. This is considered reasonable. While the restriction on coffee grounds considered unreasonable.
But I'd propose an alternative: Keurig 2.0 is going nowhere mostly because the only real advantage it has is the ability to brew pots of coffee. A lot of people simply aren't interested in doing that, much less willing to pay more/give up more countertop space for the privilege.
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Eh, the wife wanted one. Doesn't take any more space than a regular drip coffee maker.
I got myself 4 of the "use your own grounds" cups, simply because a K-Cup only produces decent coffee when it is on the "small cup" setting. So you need to make 2 of 'em to get a decent cup of coffee. Average price, even with sales, etc. is 60 cents per kcup so $1.20 for one cup of coffee. A $5 container of grounds (10.something ounces by weight) I get about 2 weeks worth of coffee.
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Agreed, I meant that Keurig 2.0 had few advantages over Keurig 1.0.
Personally I like drip coffee, but when I wake up at 7 in the morning I appreciate being able to just press a button and getting a decent (if not great) cup.
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5)
I will never buy a DRM coffee machine...
Unless you're a prostitute, don't fuck your customer.
Or Apple -- you lock in your customers all you want if you're Apple.
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Exactly. Here's why: they were always this way (since their rebirth). I'm sure Tassimo and Nespresso are doing just fine. They started with a closed system and people accepted it.
Keurig put DRM on their non-DRM product.
The moral of the story? Open sourcing is a one-way street. Don't you open source your product, don't ever think of close sourcing it.
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole idea is just stupid. I get that they are trying to make money from every cup sold, just like the razor model, but frankly that is a boardroom fantasy...
With the exception of the DRM part, the rest of the 2.0 idea was somewhat sound. The idea that you could have a barcode which adjusted the brew temp, etc... depending on what was in the cup and have a larger cup so you could include creamer, etc.. If they would have just did that and made a better product and completely left off the DRM part then they might have actually had a sellable product and they could have even gotten the advantage of being able to hold off generics longer with renewed patents. By adding the DRM all they did was make sure that 2.0 was a complete flop.
Re:Yep, they were... (Score:5, Insightful)
Earlier this year our Keurig brewer needed to be replaced. Went to the store and got a new one. Got it home and our existing K-cups wouldn't work - they were the old version. Called Keurig - they told me they would replace my cups. Told them that wasn't good enough because I didn't want to worry every time we bought cups. The rep said there was nothing she could do. Told her she lost a customer for life.
Took the brewer back, got a refund. Ordered a Mr Coffee version that is quite acceptable. Use whatever cups I want. Hope their management lose their jobs over this one. First rule of business is to treat your customers with respect or they (we) will find vendors who will. Interestingly enough, everybody figured out how to defeat their DRM. Keurig alienated customers and competitors found a workaround. Queue up Nelson Munch: "Haa Haa."
Even the sales guys know about it (Score:3)
The keurig 2.0 pissed so many people off, that standard store clerks know about the keurig 2.0 and warn people away from it. I warned my stepmother about it before she went out to buy one as a present for someone, and then she got reminded again at the store. I was happy to know that they're actively pushing people away from an inferior product.
Also of note, I found something funny in one of their third party k-cup purchases at my parent's house. It came with something called a 'freedom clip.' It goes o
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Even the disposable razor market has off-brand options. I can get sets of mach3 blades for 1/3-1/2 the name brand price by going with store brand at HEB.
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My wife loves her Keurig. (Like yours, the non-DRM version.) She got two reusable cups to use with it. She can buy whatever coffee she likes, put it in the reusable cup, brew her coffee, and then clean the filter out for the next cup. Keurig's DRM would have prevented this and would have forced her to buy only Keurig-approved coffee. We'd rather leave the "Keurig ecosystem" entirely. Keurig doesn't have a monopoly on coffee.
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I have the same attitude about government. The leviathan is just an organization with perfect DRM (and ARM).
Plan to "license more outside brands"? (Score:5, Insightful)
If their plan is to get more third parties to go along with their DRM, then they haven't really learned a thing yet.
Re:Plan to "license more outside brands"? (Score:5, Insightful)
I would say if they haven't started shipping units with the DRM disabled at the factory, they haven't yet gotten the message.
Really they should do that and provide existing customers with a freedom clip if they want to salvage their sales (and stock value) for the year.
Re:Plan to "license more outside brands"? (Score:5, Interesting)
No, they've learned a few things:
1: People care about what brands of coffee they drink.
2: Limiting choices there makes them look like the bad guy.
They think (and may well be right...) that by making this apology and opening up the choices on what coffee people make using their coffeemakers, that people won't notice that they're still limiting their choices on coffeemakers.
They've learned to pick their battles and manipulate opinion.
stuuupid (Score:5, Insightful)
Coffee is pouring hot water on ground beans. DRM'd Dispensers try to ignore that fact.
Instead of DRM... (Score:5, Funny)
Apps!
Hacked (Score:5, Interesting)
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It doesn't matter how trivial and stupid the DRM is - what matters is that circumventing it is illegal.
Like these AudioCDs that had a data track that would auto-install some malware that breaks your CD writing capability. Circumventing it required holding shift down while inserting the disk, to prevent autoplay from starting. The guy who published that information was arrested for "providing tools for circumvention of DRM".
Their whole DRM could have consisted in a single notch in the edge, and as result pla
Re:Hacked (Score:5, Informative)
Actually special ink that fluoresces a particular way in infrared light.
But yes, you can mod the machine by sticking the rim of a v2 K-cup inside it in the right place.
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Actually special ink that fluoresces a particular way in infrared light.
Hmmm. If someone could replicate that ink, they might sell markers?
I'd like to see the environmental nightmare die (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally I'd like to see the environmental nightmare of the Keurig and Tassimo curl up and die.
Re:I'd like to see the environmental nightmare die (Score:5, Informative)
Billions of those cups, with the grounds still in them, filling up landfills, right when were trying to get away from crap like that. [banthebottle.net]
Re:I'd like to see the environmental nightmare die (Score:5, Informative)
I was not liking that either, but there's a brand at Costco (San Fran I think) that makes fully biodegradable k-kup compatible single serves. The bottoms are just filter, and the top is a corn-plastic ring and some kind of high-strength paper. Works great, dolphins agree!
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It does work just fine. Unfortunately the coffee they use in them is terrible. I have a whole box of French Roast that is unpalatable.
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Exactly. Either you have good coffee in earth destroying pods, or you get the compostable pods with the most rancid low grade floor sweepings coffee out there.
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I was not liking that either, but there's a brand at Costco (San Fran I think) that makes fully biodegradable k-kup compatible single serves. The bottoms are just filter, and the top is a corn-plastic ring and some kind of high-strength paper. Works great, dolphins agree!
Its still incredibly wasteful. All those extra resources just so you can make a crap cup of coffee.
Once you learn how to make a proper espresso you will look upon pod machines with disdain and disgust. Personally given the choice between pod and instant, I'll take instant. They're both crap but the instant is faster, cheaper, less wasteful and doesn't make me feel like a hipster.
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Re:I'd like to see the environmental nightmare die (Score:5, Interesting)
nespresso is even worse the k-cup. Though they both are pretty bad. an awful lot of waste for some convenience.
me? I grind my own beans and put them into the portafilter of my 20-year-old Saeco espresso machine -- it won't die. The only waste is the spent coffee, and I feed that to my compost heap.
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and if you want convenience... (i am lazy) super automatic machines are available that store, grind, press and deliver coffee at a push button. why a cup... i never got that either.
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There's also the fact that Keurig/Tassimo coffee tastes awful. If you brew with beans that were ground more than a few minutes before you add water you're doing it wrong.
Re:I'd like to see the environmental nightmare die (Score:4, Informative)
I prefer strong coffee. Impossible to make in a Keurig, because you don't control the ratio of coffee to water. There is a cup size setting -- I set it to the smallest cup, assuming that would extract the most coffee essence per ounce -- but that still didn't make it strong enough for me. I was also trying it with my preferred blend (in a reusable K-cup) and it tasted bloody awful. I would rather eat my group coffee. Seriously.
I think the only people using these regularly are people without taste buds...and the corporate world where they are happy people aren't spending 10 minutes making a cup of coffee.
K-Cups are a weapon of mass destruction, accounting for 1% of landfill waste [theatlantic.com].
Re:I'd like to see the environmental nightmare die (Score:4, Insightful)
Personally I'd like to see the environmental nightmare of the Keurig and Tassimo curl up and die.
I own a keurig and a half dozen reusable pods that I throw in the dishwasher. I actually waste less coffee, coffee filters, etc.. now that I own a keurig and I like that I can make a single cup of coffee in the morning without any waste. I used the 20 pods that came free with my keurig but I haven't bought any since. I don't understand why people continue to buy those overpriced pieces of plastic when the same exact coffee is a fraction of the cost. Are people really that lazy that they can't spend 3 seconds dumping the old grounds in the trash?
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people are lazy, but the advertising and marketing of disposable items for extraordinary profit is partially to blame as well.
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people are lazy, but the advertising and marketing of disposable items for extraordinary profit is partially to blame as well.
I don't understand this either. You would think that the off brand coffees would help cause a race to the bottom but even the offbrand pods are extremely expensive. Is the cost of production really that high (and therefore a low profit margin) or has everyone colluded together to keep their profit margins high?
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For the same reason you see these same people with 2 x crates of over priced bottled water in their cart.
I don't understand it either.
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Personally I'd like to see the environmental nightmare of the Keurig and Tassimo curl up and die.
I own a keurig and a half dozen reusable pods that I throw in the dishwasher. I actually waste less coffee, coffee filters, etc.. now that I own a keurig and I like that I can make a single cup of coffee in the morning without any waste. I used the 20 pods that came free with my keurig but I haven't bought any since. I don't understand why people continue to buy those overpriced pieces of plastic when the same exact coffee is a fraction of the cost. Are people really that lazy that they can't spend 3 seconds dumping the old grounds in the trash?
I only have one reusable pod, but I find it works just dandy at work. I have a french press at home, but at work I don't have the resources to clean out a french press, and a standard coffee maker usually results in the coffee burning away all day, and no one cleaning out the machine. Single serve coffee works great in this situation.
But why would I pay $0.50-$1.00 per cup of disposable Keurig, when I can pay $2 for a reusable pod, and $8 for a kg of ground coffee
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My boss has a Keurig machine, and he keeps stock of my favorite coffee pods (he is a good boss).
So to me, it's not about waste (the dumpster empties itself every Monday, and costs him the same whether full or empty), and it's not about the expense (I offered to give him money once, and it insulted him so I stopped doing that).
There is a science to coffee brewing, and the first part of that is starting with fresh beans and much of the rest is consistent temperature and brewing time and good water.
The Keurig
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Personally I'd like to see the environmental nightmare of the Keurig and Tassimo curl up and die.
Enh, I've always used a filter basket and normal coffee grounds with my Keurig. I love the thing personally. I have an older one without DRM silliness. They really are nice appliances when used intelligently.
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People want to firms making these machines to curl up and die not because of intelligent users like yourself. They have the desire because of the masses of people who buy disposable, non-recyclable, non-reusable plastic cups of bad coffee, in the manner *that these companies want people to use them*.
The standard use case is a vastly wasteful enterprise, and designed to be that way.
Rating: Sell (Score:3)
It is also working to launch the Keurig KOLD system in the fall, which it hopes will revolutionize how people consume cold beverages at home.
Boldly going where many others have failed before. At least with coffee, there was always a need & market for easy 1 cup brewing. I can't see what need they may be filling with cold beverages, and I don't see people adding another appliance unless it is something quite "revolutionary." Am I missing an obvious need?
For a company that has a limited product line, launching a new one and failing can be very painful.
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Maybe it makes iced tea by brewing it hot, then chilling it rapidly.
KOLD = Karbonator (Score:2)
I can't see what need they may be filling with cold beverages, and I don't see people adding another appliance unless it is something quite "revolutionary." Am I missing an obvious need?
Basically KOLD is a SodaStream like product. The reason they think it's revolutionary is that they got CocaCola to sign on to it.
AFAIK, unlike SodaStream, KOLD will creates CO2 from a chemical reaction and pressurizes it with a pump (not feeding it from a proprietary pre-filled canister). Not sure how much DRM they were planning for this part, but I'm guessing not much now ;^)
I have an idea (Score:5, Interesting)
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Starbucks is good coffee? I've not had a good cup of coffee from them in years. They used to be good, but things kept getting worse and worse as they automated all the "process" stuff away and went nuts on portion control. (i.e. it became about money and not good coffee).
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Starbucks basically collapsed in Australia because it couldn't make a decent coffee to save itself (sorry).
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In Aus Starbucks openned 85 stores. Lost $144 million dollars and then closed 60 of their stores....
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So is every brand of junk food.
Starbucks is proof that great advertising can sell mediocre product to the masses. It's not that Starbucks is bad. It's just not all it's hyped up to be. Thing is, it doesn't have to be. When you make coffee flavored chocolate milk like most of the people buy, the coffee takes a back seat and you can get away with mediocre flavor.
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Or they could try 2-year contracts. That's an established way to keep customers without actually trying to make them want to stay.
I almost bought a 2.0 DRMed... (Score:5, Insightful)
While looking for a coffee machine, I liked one of this 2.0 Keurig models.
Then I learned about this "only keurig aproved" cups and actually bought an 1.0 keurig machine instead.
And using this 1.0 model I can't see a reason for one buy a 2.0 model.
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It's kind of nice being able to make a pot of coffee. If you have a dinner party and want to make coffee for everybody afterwards, somebody has to stand around the Keurig machine pressing buttons for ten minutes, handing out cups of coffee one-by-one.
While conceptually I don't like the idea of DRM'd coffee, realistically anything you buy is licensed, and using "my KCup" brews coffee that's so ridiculously weak. By the time you're grinding your own beans, just use a gold-filter pour-over.
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Or you could just have a regular coffee maker for such occurrences and a Keurig for day-to-day. My little drip coffee maker normally sits under the cabinet unless I need to make a pot (rare). It cost like $20.
"Quite honestly, we were wrong." (Score:2)
> "Quite honestly, we were wrong."
YA THINK??? Sorry sorry sorry. That's a little unfair, now that they're trying to do something more reasonable. Too bad it took a shot to the pocketbook, though.
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> "Quite honestly, we were wrong."
YA THINK??? Sorry sorry sorry. That's a little unfair, now that they're trying to do something more reasonable. Too bad it took a shot to the pocketbook, though.
They are sorry to be caught... If they really cared, they'd provide a DRM "fix" kit for anybody who owns a 2.0 device.... Betcha they don't do that..
Thank you consumers! (Score:3)
At last, a serious blow to the pocket book for companies employing stupid DRM crap.
Consumers voted with their wallets and Keurig learns a valuable lesson. Let's hope other industries learn from their mistake and consumer continue to take a stance against this garbage.
Didn't matter to me. (Score:5, Informative)
Hacking the Keurig is as easy as Hollywood style bomb defusing. You open it and literally cut the green wire. It takes less than 5 minutes and removes all restrictions.
Video explanation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
They could have, if they were not stupid... (Score:5, Insightful)
They could have gotten away with it if they had been smarter about it.
K-cup is popular.
The 2.0 machine will do things like espresso, and it needs the smarts to do it,
If they had set the machine to treat K-cups without the chips just like the old machine did, no one would have cared.
As more of the featurefull drinks became more popular, more drinks would move over to that.
10 years out, when people are drinking a LOT more of the drinks that use the new features, your making a LOT more money.
Oh, wait, that doesn't drive everyone else out of the market. But it sells a lot more machines and a lot more licences to make drinks using the new features.
Too late (Score:2)
In the meantime (Score:4, Interesting)
My 20 year old Saeco Vienna superautomatic just grinds, tamps, brews and foams with barely a microcontroller in there and physical buttons. No LCD, no IoT, no touch screen, no flavors, no DRM.
Until they can DRM individual coffee beans, I'm never changing.
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It's called "Fair Trade".
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What's crappy about it? The dated looks?
Re:In the meantime (Score:4, Informative)
If you clean it, descale it, keep the gaskets lubed and grinder sharp, it's OK.
The best thing Keurig can do is die (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The best thing Keurig can do is die (Score:4, Insightful)
The fact that you can't think of a good way to implement DRM, doesn't mean that a good way doesn't/can't exist.
No, it's the fact that no one can think of a good way to implement DRM. At least, it hasn't happened yet, and a lot of human effort has been spent on it.
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No, I am saying DRM is unfair, period. It's not just the implementation, or the excesses. It is the goal. They are trying to make ideas and thinking no different than material property. They want people to have to buy and sell ideas as if they were no different than material goods such as clothes. They have resorted to propaganda, equating copying to stealing at every opportunity, calling people who do it by the loaded term "pirates" no matter how innocent the copying, calling ideas "property" with the
Somebody else has a worse coffee maker (Score:2)
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If you manage a company with recurrent networking problems / bad work by your networking department... this sounds like an ingenious appliance to put in the network management department / IT team's breakroom. Network Slow = Limited Coffee, Network down = No Coffee.... suddenly people will care.
*Cough* Bullshit (Score:5, Insightful)
The company says they now plan to license more outside brands, and bring back “My K-Cup” reusable filters.
If they really believed they were wrong about the things they were actually wrong about, then they would Open-Source the DRM technology and make the interoperability specs public domain, and stop trying to charge licensing dollars.
Your outta your mind. (Score:2)
My first impression of a coffee machine being sold at Walmart (Keurig) that only took specialized coffee pods and no others.
And I read the box, think of all those who didn't, and just grabbed a handy coffee machine as the price wasn't bad.
They learned nothing. (Score:3)
They learned nothing. They will continue to DRM the coffee maker just license More pods.I hope the pod makers flip them off as they should.They don't need Keurig,Keurig needs them.
Don't be a lazy a-hole (Score:3)
buy a french press or a proper espresso machine and learn to make a decent cup of coffee without all the stupid prepackaged waste.