IP: more on IDs on copy machines and printers?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2002 16:59:49 -0500
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> From: Henry Minsky <hqm () ai mit edu>
>
>
> Another interesting reference:
>
> http://www.sgrm.com/art20.htm
> Desktop Counterfeiting
> By Doug McClellan
>
> "Meanwhile, would-be counterfeiters may also find themselves stymied by 
> security devices that appear on some of the equipment used to print fakes. 
> For more than a year Canon Corp., the leading manufacturer of color 
> copiers and a producer of printers and scanners, has quietly incorporated 
> two anti-counterfeiting features into its business products, says David 
> Farr, senior vice- president and general manager of Canon USA, Inc. The 
> copiers include a specially programmed microchip that recognizes the 
> currencies of several countries, including the United States and Japan. If 
> someone attempts to copy the currency, the copier will print a black sheet 
> of paper instead.
> A more subtle deterrent imprints a code of the machine's serial number on 
> every copy it produces. The number is encoded in ``microdots'' that can be 
> printed anywhere on the page. ``Nobody even knows these features are in 
> there,'' Farr says. The serial number can be decoded only with special 
> equipment that he declined to identify, which the company provides to the 
> Secret Service and other federal agencies solely for tracing counterfeits 
> to the copier on which they were made. "

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