Re: HP printers and currency anti-copying measures

[Andre Oppermann]

Richard,

More disturbing is that simply blocking the printing of currencies is
not the right thing. There are in fact only limits on how close a
currency is allowed to be reproduced. There is no law or regulation
(at least for the Euro) that prohibits reproducing the bank notes in
general.

For example you are explicitly allowed to reproduce Euro notes if:

1. it is only reproduced electronically (ie. Website) when the
resolution is not higher than 72dpi

2. it is only printed one-sided and it is at most 75% or at least
125% the size of the original

3. it is printed double-sided and it is at most 50% or at least
200% the size of the original

4. is is printed on something that clearly is not paper and does
not look and feel like real bank note paper (here it can be a
100% size reproduction)

5. some more possibilities...

Thus a wholesale blocking of the printing or editing of currency
images is neither required nor correct and denies legal and fair
use.

Reproducing at least the Euro currency IS LEGAL provided the rules
are followed.

--
Andre Oppermann


"Richard M. Smith" wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Last week, the Associated Press reported that Adobe has incorporated
> anti-copying technology in their Photoshop CS software which prevents users
> from opening image files of U.S. and European currency. Here's the article:
>
> Adobe admits to currency blocker
> http://tinyurl.com/2xnno
>
> (http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11271~1882929,00.html)
>
> I did some investigating on my own computer and discovered that HP has also
> been shipping currency anti-copying software in their printer drives since
> at least the summer of 2002. I have an HP 130 photo printer and found the
> string "http://www.rulesforuse.org" embedded in the driver.
>
> According to a few newsgroup messages posted in 2002 and 2003, folks are
> seeing this URL printed out when they attempt to print images of certain
> types of bills. An HP printer with this anti-copying technology only prints
> out an inch of a currency image before aborting the print job.
>
> Here is a list of HP printers which appear to have this anti-copy technology
> embedded in their Windows printer drivers:
>
> HP 130
> HP 230
> HP 7150
> HP 7345
> HP 7350
> HP 7550
>
> I suspect the list of affected HP printers is much longer.
>
> I located these printer drivers simply by searching all files in my Windows
> and Program Files directories for the string "rulesforuse". If other folks
> run this same experiment, please let me know of other programs which appear
> to contain currency anti-copy technology.
>
> There are some unanswered questions raised by this quiet effort by U.S. and
> European governments to turn home computers into anti-counterfeiting "cops":
>
> 1. Besides graphic programs and printer drivers, what
> other kinds of software is this currency anti-copy
> technology being embedded in?
>
> 2. Are companies being required to include currency
> anti-copying technology in their products? If not,
> what incentives are being offered to companies to
> include the technology on a voluntary basis?
>
> 3. Will future versions of this technology, "phone home"
> to the rulesforuse.org Web site with details about
> a violation of the currency copying rules? It would
> be very easy to include an email address, name of the
> image file, software version number, etc. embedded in
> a URL to the rulesforuse.org when a violation has been
> detected.
>
> Richard M. Smith
> http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com

[Larry Seltzer]

>>Are companies being required to include currency anti-copying technology in their
products? If not, what incentives are being offered to companies to include the
technology on a voluntary basis?

Perhaps they're doing it to protect themselves against any possible accessory claims. I
don't know if there's any law on this point. Perhaps they're expected to take some sort
of precautions against their products being used for counterfeiting.

BTW, note that the registrant name for rulesforuse.org is "EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK".
Nothing sinister I suppose, just interesting.

Larry Seltzer
eWEEK.com Security Center Editor
http://security.eweek.com/
larryseltzer@ziffdavis.com

[Kevin E. Casey]

Any decent counterfeiter would be aware of the rulesforuse.org website
and could easily make a tweak to their host files... Say point
rulesforuse.org to their own webserver which would then be designed to
return data permitting the copying of currency images...=20

As for preventing image copying, it seems a half-witted attempt by
bureaucrats to stop kiddyfitters... It probably wouldn't take too much
to defeat it anyway (like cut the bill into thirds, then scan each third
seperately and stitch it back to together). =20



-----Original Message-----
From: Richard M. Smith [mailto:rms@computerbytesman.com]=20
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 12:10 PM
To: BUGTRAQ@SECURITYFOCUS. COM
Subject: HP printers and currency anti-copying measures

Hi,

Last week, the Associated Press reported that Adobe has incorporated
anti-copying technology in their Photoshop CS software which prevents
users from opening image files of U.S. and European currency. Here's
the article:

Adobe admits to currency blocker
http://tinyurl.com/2xnno
=20
(http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11271~1882929,00.h
tml)

I did some investigating on my own computer and discovered that HP has
also been shipping currency anti-copying software in their printer
drives since at least the summer of 2002. I have an HP 130 photo
printer and found the string "http://www.rulesforuse.org" embedded in
the driver. =20

According to a few newsgroup messages posted in 2002 and 2003, folks are
seeing this URL printed out when they attempt to print images of certain
types of bills. An HP printer with this anti-copying technology only
prints out an inch of a currency image before aborting the print job.

Here is a list of HP printers which appear to have this anti-copy
technology embedded in their Windows printer drivers:

HP 130
HP 230
HP 7150
HP 7345
HP 7350
HP 7550

I suspect the list of affected HP printers is much longer.

I located these printer drivers simply by searching all files in my
Windows and Program Files directories for the string "rulesforuse". If
other folks run this same experiment, please let me know of other
programs which appear to contain currency anti-copy technology.

There are some unanswered questions raised by this quiet effort by U.S.
and European governments to turn home computers into anti-counterfeiting
"cops":

1. Besides graphic programs and printer drivers, what
other kinds of software is this currency anti-copy
technology being embedded in?

2. Are companies being required to include currency
anti-copying technology in their products? If not,=20
what incentives are being offered to companies to=20
include the technology on a voluntary basis?

3. Will future versions of this technology, "phone home"
to the rulesforuse.org Web site with details about
a violation of the currency copying rules? It would
be very easy to include an email address, name of the
image file, software version number, etc. embedded in
a URL to the rulesforuse.org when a violation has been
detected.

Richard M. Smith
http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com

[mightye[removethis]]

Or use Photoshop 7, 6, 5.5, 5, etc. I seriously doubt that there are
any advancements in newer versions of Photoshop which make
counterfitting significantly easier. Scanning is scanning, and given
that what you're trying to do is reproduce an existing image, not create
a new one, the editing features found in new versions of Photoshop will
provide very little advantage in this regard aside maybe from a little
clean up of dirt on the glass of the scanner.

The point is, they don't really raise the bar to counterfitting, all
they do is raise the bar to legitimate use. Besides, there's always
Gimp and open source software. Building in such restrictions to that
software, given that the code source is available means that any serious
counterfitter will recompile with out the protections. There'll
therefore always be photo editing suites available which don't possess
these limitations, and so there'll always be a way around it. It's the
wrong approach to preventing counterfitting, it's kludgey and won't ever
work well.

I guess though what it *will* do is prevent teenagers from printing out
$5 bills and tossing them in the coin machine at the arcade, or any
other electronic eye. This is petty theft though, and it hardly seems
fair to restrict legitimate consumers, costing them ultimately hundreds
of hours to lost performance or costing them the fair use of money
images to save $5 here and there.

It's the same problem as DRM enabled music. It'll always be defeatable,
and given that in that case there's the "analog hole" problem, will not
ever stop someone serious about committing the crime, thus all it does
is inconvenience or prohibit fair use.

-Eric "MightyE" Stevens
http://lotgd.net
*note* If you wish to reply, please remove my spam blocking
"[removethis]" from my email address.

Kevin E. Casey wrote:

>Any decent counterfeiter would be aware of the rulesforuse.org website
>and could easily make a tweak to their host files... Say point
>rulesforuse.org to their own webserver which would then be designed to
>return data permitting the copying of currency images...
>
>As for preventing image copying, it seems a half-witted attempt by
>bureaucrats to stop kiddyfitters... It probably wouldn't take too much
>to defeat it anyway (like cut the bill into thirds, then scan each third
>seperately and stitch it back to together).
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Richard M. Smith [mailto:rms@computerbytesman.com]
>Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 12:10 PM
>To: BUGTRAQ@SECURITYFOCUS. COM
>Subject: HP printers and currency anti-copying measures
>
>Hi,
>
>Last week, the Associated Press reported that Adobe has incorporated
>anti-copying technology in their Photoshop CS software which prevents
>users from opening image files of U.S. and European currency. Here's
>the article:
>
> Adobe admits to currency blocker
> http://tinyurl.com/2xnno
>
>(http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11271~1882929,00.h
>tml)
>
>I did some investigating on my own computer and discovered that HP has
>also been shipping currency anti-copying software in their printer
>drives since at least the summer of 2002. I have an HP 130 photo
>printer and found the string "http://www.rulesforuse.org" embedded in
>the driver.
>
>According to a few newsgroup messages posted in 2002 and 2003, folks are
>seeing this URL printed out when they attempt to print images of certain
>types of bills. An HP printer with this anti-copying technology only
>prints out an inch of a currency image before aborting the print job.
>
>Here is a list of HP printers which appear to have this anti-copy
>technology embedded in their Windows printer drivers:
>
> HP 130
> HP 230
> HP 7150
> HP 7345
> HP 7350
> HP 7550
>
>I suspect the list of affected HP printers is much longer.
>
>I located these printer drivers simply by searching all files in my
>Windows and Program Files directories for the string "rulesforuse". If
>other folks run this same experiment, please let me know of other
>programs which appear to contain currency anti-copy technology.
>
>There are some unanswered questions raised by this quiet effort by U.S.
>and European governments to turn home computers into anti-counterfeiting
>"cops":
>
> 1. Besides graphic programs and printer drivers, what
> other kinds of software is this currency anti-copy
> technology being embedded in?
>
> 2. Are companies being required to include currency
> anti-copying technology in their products? If not,
> what incentives are being offered to companies to
> include the technology on a voluntary basis?
>
> 3. Will future versions of this technology, "phone home"
> to the rulesforuse.org Web site with details about
> a violation of the currency copying rules? It would
> be very easy to include an email address, name of the
> image file, software version number, etc. embedded in
> a URL to the rulesforuse.org when a violation has been
> detected.
>
>Richard M. Smith
>http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com
>
>
>
>
>
>

[Sami Haahtinen]

mightye[removethis] wrote:
> Or use Photoshop 7, 6, 5.5, 5, etc. I seriously doubt that there are
> any advancements in newer versions of Photoshop which make
> counterfitting significantly easier. Scanning is scanning, and given
> that what you're trying to do is reproduce an existing image, not create
> a new one, the editing features found in new versions of Photoshop will
> provide very little advantage in this regard aside maybe from a little
> clean up of dirt on the glass of the scanner.

Actually the Photoshop restriction works pretty well when scanning the
bills, we ofcourse had to test this as soon as we saw the announcement.
What was dissapointing was the way it worked, even if we embedded the
bill in to a bigger image it was still able to spot it from there, we
didn't ofcourse go as far as we could have with the trickery, but it
turned out to work pretty well.

What was even more disappointing was that if we used the same scanner
tools and saved the bill in to a TIFF file and loaded it from there to
Photoshop, we were able to open and edit the image. Again, we didn't
want to push our luck and print the bill with a color laser, but it was
enough to convince us of a good attempt, and a bad implementation.

I do know that the Adobe had to think about the users while creating
this block, some users might need the ability to load an image of some
worlds currency and embedd it in to an image, but this leaves a big loop
hole. If i was a counterfitter, i wouldn't settle for 'hey, you can't
scan this' and i would look for other means to scan the bill.

Regards, Sami

[Sasha]

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004, mightye[removethis] wrote:

> Or use Photoshop 7, 6, 5.5, 5, etc. I seriously doubt that there are
> any advancements in newer versions of Photoshop which make
> counterfitting significantly easier. Scanning is scanning, and given
> that what you're trying to do is reproduce an existing image, not create
> a new one, the editing features found in new versions of Photoshop will
> provide very little advantage in this regard aside maybe from a little
> clean up of dirt on the glass of the scanner.

My police experience (that is forensics of the captured computers) shows
that PS is not used in the real counterfitting. Instead they use vector
based packages like CorelDraw and create images themselves (sometimes
starting from a scaned image, sometimes not). I guess this is world wide
practice and so either people who invent "currency anti-copying measures"
never talk with experts or ignore what they was told :-)

Regards,
ASK

[Darren Reed]

Cripes, why don't they just print money that won't scan ?

You can buy paper that if you photocopy/scan will come out
with "illegal copy" all over it. I'm sure they could do the
same for currency if they tried.

Of course another method is to create a well lit environment,
get a <bignumber> mega-pixel digital camera and generate an
image that's equivalent in quality to what you would get from
a scanner for reproduction purposes. Well, maybe affordable
digital cameras with the requisite resolution are still a few
years away...

But there's only one commonly used currency in the world that
is worth targetting and is really vulnerable here, any more...
the US dollar (please don't write about how cool the new $20 is,
I've seen it and have joked about it with Americans when comparing
it to the AUD$20 note and other currencies) - British Pounds,
Australian Dollars, the list goes on, are all made using plastic
printing technology that's moved on from being vulnerable to
someone at home with a scanner and some paper.

Darren

[Darren Reed]

Cripes, why don't they just print money that won't scan ?

You can buy paper that if you photocopy/scan will come out
with "illegal copy" all over it. I'm sure they could do the
same for currency if they tried.

Of course another method is to create a well lit environment,
get a <bignumber> mega-pixel digital camera and generate an
image that's equivalent in quality to what you would get from
a scanner for reproduction purposes. Well, maybe affordable
digital cameras with the requisite resolution are still a few
years away...

But there's only one commonly used currency in the world that
is worth targetting and is really vulnerable here, any more...
the US dollar (please don't write about how cool the new $20 is,
I've seen it and have joked about it with Americans when comparing
it to the AUD$20 note and other currencies) - British Pounds,
Australian Dollars, the list goes on, are all made using plastic
printing technology that's moved on from being vulnerable to
someone at home with a scanner and some paper.

Darren

[Dan Harkless]

As a followup to the thread below, a bunch more information on this just
came out yesterday in the Associated Press story "World Banks Working to
Stop Counterfeiting":

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/aptech_story.asp?category=1700&slug=Banks%20Anticounterfeit

Apparently the "Group of Ten" central banks started work four years ago on
their "counterfeit deterrence system", which "Several leading personal
computer hardware and software manufacturers have voluntarily adopted".
This reportedly includes ~90% of printer drivers, and soon will include
scanner firmware as well, so at that point it will be insufficient to just
use open source image editing software, as was suggested below.

The software is said to key off of "special coding on bank notes, which
currently is included only on major currencies", so the workaround suggested
below of scanning currency in multiple sections would likely be ineffective.


On January 20, 2004, "mightye[removethis]" <"mightye[removethis]"@mightye.org> wrote:
> Or use Photoshop 7, 6, 5.5, 5, etc. I seriously doubt that there are
> any advancements in newer versions of Photoshop which make
> counterfitting significantly easier. Scanning is scanning, and given
> that what you're trying to do is reproduce an existing image, not create
> a new one, the editing features found in new versions of Photoshop will
> provide very little advantage in this regard aside maybe from a little
> clean up of dirt on the glass of the scanner.
>
> The point is, they don't really raise the bar to counterfitting, all
> they do is raise the bar to legitimate use. Besides, there's always
> Gimp and open source software. Building in such restrictions to that
> software, given that the code source is available means that any serious
> counterfitter will recompile with out the protections. There'll
> therefore always be photo editing suites available which don't possess
> these limitations, and so there'll always be a way around it. It's the
> wrong approach to preventing counterfitting, it's kludgey and won't ever
> work well.
>
> I guess though what it *will* do is prevent teenagers from printing out
> $5 bills and tossing them in the coin machine at the arcade, or any
> other electronic eye. This is petty theft though, and it hardly seems
> fair to restrict legitimate consumers, costing them ultimately hundreds
> of hours to lost performance or costing them the fair use of money
> images to save $5 here and there.
>
> It's the same problem as DRM enabled music. It'll always be defeatable,
> and given that in that case there's the "analog hole" problem, will not
> ever stop someone serious about committing the crime, thus all it does
> is inconvenience or prohibit fair use.
>
> -Eric "MightyE" Stevens
> http://lotgd.net
> *note* If you wish to reply, please remove my spam blocking
> "[removethis]" from my email address.
>
> Kevin E. Casey wrote:
>
> >Any decent counterfeiter would be aware of the rulesforuse.org website
> >and could easily make a tweak to their host files... Say point
> >rulesforuse.org to their own webserver which would then be designed to
> >return data permitting the copying of currency images...
> >
> >As for preventing image copying, it seems a half-witted attempt by
> >bureaucrats to stop kiddyfitters... It probably wouldn't take too much
> >to defeat it anyway (like cut the bill into thirds, then scan each third
> >seperately and stitch it back to together).
> >
> >
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Richard M. Smith [mailto:rms@computerbytesman.com]
> >Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 12:10 PM
> >To: BUGTRAQ@SECURITYFOCUS. COM
> >Subject: HP printers and currency anti-copying measures
> >
> >Hi,
> >
> >Last week, the Associated Press reported that Adobe has incorporated
> >anti-copying technology in their Photoshop CS software which prevents
> >users from opening image files of U.S. and European currency. Here's
> >the article:
> >
> > Adobe admits to currency blocker
> > http://tinyurl.com/2xnno
> >
> >(http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11271~1882929,00.h
> >tml)
> >
> >I did some investigating on my own computer and discovered that HP has
> >also been shipping currency anti-copying software in their printer
> >drives since at least the summer of 2002. I have an HP 130 photo
> >printer and found the string "http://www.rulesforuse.org" embedded in
> >the driver.
> >
> >According to a few newsgroup messages posted in 2002 and 2003, folks are
> >seeing this URL printed out when they attempt to print images of certain
> >types of bills. An HP printer with this anti-copying technology only
> >prints out an inch of a currency image before aborting the print job.
> >
> >Here is a list of HP printers which appear to have this anti-copy
> >technology embedded in their Windows printer drivers:
> >
> > HP 130
> > HP 230
> > HP 7150
> > HP 7345
> > HP 7350
> > HP 7550
> >
> >I suspect the list of affected HP printers is much longer.
> >
> >I located these printer drivers simply by searching all files in my
> >Windows and Program Files directories for the string "rulesforuse". If
> >other folks run this same experiment, please let me know of other
> >programs which appear to contain currency anti-copy technology.
> >
> >There are some unanswered questions raised by this quiet effort by U.S.
> >and European governments to turn home computers into anti-counterfeiting
> >"cops":
> >
> > 1. Besides graphic programs and printer drivers, what
> > other kinds of software is this currency anti-copy
> > technology being embedded in?
> >
> > 2. Are companies being required to include currency
> > anti-copying technology in their products? If not,
> > what incentives are being offered to companies to
> > include the technology on a voluntary basis?
> >
> > 3. Will future versions of this technology, "phone home"
> > to the rulesforuse.org Web site with details about
> > a violation of the currency copying rules? It would
> > be very easy to include an email address, name of the
> > image file, software version number, etc. embedded in
> > a URL to the rulesforuse.org when a violation has been
> > detected.
> >
> >Richard M. Smith
> >http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com

--
Dan Harkless
http://harkless.org/dan/

[Dana Hudes]

Watermarking is subject to numerous attacks.
I haven't examined this issue in detail as it applies to
bank currency but there are some basic approaches:
- destroy the watermark so it can no longer be detected
- reverse the watermarking algorithm to restore the unwatermarked image

If you restore the unwatermarked image of course that will cause the fake
banknotes not to be accepted by vending machines which scan for it. The
trouble with that is of course legacy equipment that knows nothing of it.
Indeed, my own apartment building laundry room put up a notice that they
needed an equipment upgrade not yet available to handle the new $20 bills
in the smartcard dispenser (the washers and dryers work only off the
smartcards ) so folks have to continue using the old ones. Of course, the
dispenser does not accept coins -- too bulky I suppose -- nor does
it accept credit cards.





On Wed, 10 Mar 2004, Dan Harkless wrote:

>
> As a followup to the thread below, a bunch more information on this just
> came out yesterday in the Associated Press story "World Banks Working to
> Stop Counterfeiting":
>
> http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/aptech_story.asp?category=1700&slug=Banks%20Anticounterfeit
>
> Apparently the "Group of Ten" central banks started work four years ago on
> their "counterfeit deterrence system", which "Several leading personal
> computer hardware and software manufacturers have voluntarily adopted".
> This reportedly includes ~90% of printer drivers, and soon will include
> scanner firmware as well, so at that point it will be insufficient to just
> use open source image editing software, as was suggested below.
>
> The software is said to key off of "special coding on bank notes, which
> currently is included only on major currencies", so the workaround suggested
> below of scanning currency in multiple sections would likely be ineffective.
>
>
> On January 20, 2004, "mightye[removethis]" <"mightye[removethis]"@mightye.org> wrote:
> > Or use Photoshop 7, 6, 5.5, 5, etc. I seriously doubt that there are
> > any advancements in newer versions of Photoshop which make
> > counterfitting significantly easier. Scanning is scanning, and given
> > that what you're trying to do is reproduce an existing image, not create
> > a new one, the editing features found in new versions of Photoshop will
> > provide very little advantage in this regard aside maybe from a little
> > clean up of dirt on the glass of the scanner.
> >
> > The point is, they don't really raise the bar to counterfitting, all
> > they do is raise the bar to legitimate use. Besides, there's always
> > Gimp and open source software. Building in such restrictions to that
> > software, given that the code source is available means that any serious
> > counterfitter will recompile with out the protections. There'll
> > therefore always be photo editing suites available which don't possess
> > these limitations, and so there'll always be a way around it. It's the
> > wrong approach to preventing counterfitting, it's kludgey and won't ever
> > work well.
> >
> > I guess though what it *will* do is prevent teenagers from printing out
> > $5 bills and tossing them in the coin machine at the arcade, or any
> > other electronic eye. This is petty theft though, and it hardly seems
> > fair to restrict legitimate consumers, costing them ultimately hundreds
> > of hours to lost performance or costing them the fair use of money
> > images to save $5 here and there.
> >
> > It's the same problem as DRM enabled music. It'll always be defeatable,
> > and given that in that case there's the "analog hole" problem, will not
> > ever stop someone serious about committing the crime, thus all it does
> > is inconvenience or prohibit fair use.
> >
> > -Eric "MightyE" Stevens
> > http://lotgd.net
> > *note* If you wish to reply, please remove my spam blocking
> > "[removethis]" from my email address.
> >
> > Kevin E. Casey wrote:
> >
> > >Any decent counterfeiter would be aware of the rulesforuse.org website
> > >and could easily make a tweak to their host files... Say point
> > >rulesforuse.org to their own webserver which would then be designed to
> > >return data permitting the copying of currency images...
> > >
> > >As for preventing image copying, it seems a half-witted attempt by
> > >bureaucrats to stop kiddyfitters... It probably wouldn't take too much
> > >to defeat it anyway (like cut the bill into thirds, then scan each third
> > >seperately and stitch it back to together).
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >-----Original Message-----
> > >From: Richard M. Smith [mailto:rms@computerbytesman.com]
> > >Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 12:10 PM
> > >To: BUGTRAQ@SECURITYFOCUS. COM
> > >Subject: HP printers and currency anti-copying measures
> > >
> > >Hi,
> > >
> > >Last week, the Associated Press reported that Adobe has incorporated
> > >anti-copying technology in their Photoshop CS software which prevents
> > >users from opening image files of U.S. and European currency. Here's
> > >the article:
> > >
> > > Adobe admits to currency blocker
> > > http://tinyurl.com/2xnno
> > >
> > >(http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11271~1882929,00.h
> > >tml)
> > >
> > >I did some investigating on my own computer and discovered that HP has
> > >also been shipping currency anti-copying software in their printer
> > >drives since at least the summer of 2002. I have an HP 130 photo
> > >printer and found the string "http://www.rulesforuse.org" embedded in
> > >the driver.
> > >
> > >According to a few newsgroup messages posted in 2002 and 2003, folks are
> > >seeing this URL printed out when they attempt to print images of certain
> > >types of bills. An HP printer with this anti-copying technology only
> > >prints out an inch of a currency image before aborting the print job.
> > >
> > >Here is a list of HP printers which appear to have this anti-copy
> > >technology embedded in their Windows printer drivers:
> > >
> > > HP 130
> > > HP 230
> > > HP 7150
> > > HP 7345
> > > HP 7350
> > > HP 7550
> > >
> > >I suspect the list of affected HP printers is much longer.
> > >
> > >I located these printer drivers simply by searching all files in my
> > >Windows and Program Files directories for the string "rulesforuse". If
> > >other folks run this same experiment, please let me know of other
> > >programs which appear to contain currency anti-copy technology.
> > >
> > >There are some unanswered questions raised by this quiet effort by U.S.
> > >and European governments to turn home computers into anti-counterfeiting
> > >"cops":
> > >
> > > 1. Besides graphic programs and printer drivers, what
> > > other kinds of software is this currency anti-copy
> > > technology being embedded in?
> > >
> > > 2. Are companies being required to include currency
> > > anti-copying technology in their products? If not,
> > > what incentives are being offered to companies to
> > > include the technology on a voluntary basis?
> > >
> > > 3. Will future versions of this technology, "phone home"
> > > to the rulesforuse.org Web site with details about
> > > a violation of the currency copying rules? It would
> > > be very easy to include an email address, name of the
> > > image file, software version number, etc. embedded in
> > > a URL to the rulesforuse.org when a violation has been
> > > detected.
> > >
> > >Richard M. Smith
> > >http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com
>
> --
> Dan Harkless
> http://harkless.org/dan/
>