DRM Protection Reaches Cat Litter

Programmer Jorge Lopez is very fond of cats. The only unpleasant moment, he calls the constant need to clean the used filler - because of the pungent odor. Six months ago, Jorge fulfilled his old dream and bought his beloved cat a super-designed automatic toilet CatGenie, which automatically collects and launders plastic filler for reuse.

A cartridge with a cleaning agent lasts for 2-4 months (about $ 350 a year is spent on it). One day, Jorge did not have time to buy a spare cartridge and decided to change the fluid on his own. Here the catman was in for an unpleasant surprise. He shares his sincere indignation on the blog on Medium.

By pouring ordinary water into the cartridge, he hoped to stretch a couple of days until he got to the store. But after refilling, to the engineer’s surprise, the cartridge refused to work, and CatGenie continued to squeak annoyingly, signaling an empty cartridge.

Jorge Lopez climbed again to google the problem - and found out that CatGenie’s SaniSolution SmartCartridge cartridges have RFID chips that monitor fluid levels. If the cleaning agent runs out, it is no longer possible to return the device to working condition without reprogramming the microcircuit.

Thus, the intellectual property of the manufacturer is protected, which retains the right to refill cartridges only with its own patented means.

The system works similarly to the same DRM mechanism in conventional desktop printers. Thanks to DRM, printer manufacturers make the main profit by selling supplies, and ink for an inkjet printer is one of the most expensive liquids on the planet (about $ 4 per milliliter).

“In fact, CatGenie, have you added a rather sophisticated DRM system to the cat tray?”, The cat owner addresses the device manufacturer. He finally realized that he was not in reality the owner of this gadget, but only rented it in accordance with the terms of the contract.



Fortunately, on the Internet, we managed to find hackers who had already released a modified CatGenius firmware for hacking cat's toilets, and also launched the production of DRM emulatorsCartridgeGenius .



What is most interesting, according to user reviews, when refilling a cartridge with plain water with the installation of a DRM emulator, CatGenie works even better than with a proprietary cleaning agent: plastic filler granules lose their stickiness and no longer stick to cat's hair.