Sydenia
02-10-2004, 17:10
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government will offer over the Internet low-quality images of its new $50 bill for artists, students and others who discover that their computers, scanners or printers won't allow them to view or copy pictures of the new currency.
Uncle Sam is making sure that computers won't cooperate with would-be counterfeiters -- even as it tries to accommodate consumers who legitimately want or need images of the currency.
[...]
Making these digital copies is getting harder, thanks to secretive anti-counterfeiting technology built into some popular consumer hardware and software products at the request of government regulators and international bankers.
The technology detects and blocks attempts to view, scan or print copies of the redesigned $20 and $50 bills and, in a pop-up window, urges consumers to visit a Web site, www.rulesforuse.org, to learn about international counterfeit laws.
[...]
Precisely how the technology works is a mystery. The U.S. government keeps its inner workings a closely guarded secret, arguing that disclosing too much information could help counterfeiters circumvent protections.
[...]
The Federal Reserve earlier this year denied a request and an appeal by The Associated Press under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act to learn some details about the system. The AP, which first revealed the program's existence in January, sought to learn whether the technology surreptitiously tracks consumers who try to copy bills, which U.S. agencies and private vendors built it, and how much it cost.
The reserve's board of governors told the AP it located a stack of papers 52 inches tall about the mysterious technology but agreed to release only 14 pages. It said the other documents represented trade secrets, internal letters or law enforcement procedures that couldn't be disclosed under the information act.
One document obtained by the AP, a 1998 U.S. government business solicitation, mandated that "any color printer must include a tracing system that encodes system identification in any output. This will tie the output to the originating equipment so that forensic identification of the equipment is possible in the event of illegal printing of currency images due to failure or circumvention of the recognition system(s)...."
Other papers turned over to the AP said the anti-counterfeit technology "does not have the capacity to track the use of a personal computer or digital imaging tool."
[...]
Foster said the counterfeit protections built into consumer products recognize only the newly redesigned $20 and $50 bills, but upcoming changes to other currencies also will be expected to trigger the system.
Full article (http://us.cnn.com/2004/US/10/01/copying.dollars.ap/index.html).
Creative, intriguing... kind of creepy though, if you ask me. It probably wouldn't be as much so if they disclosed even vague details of how it works. Though the idea of any colour image having system details output into it is kind of weird too. o_O;;
Thoughts anyone?
Uncle Sam is making sure that computers won't cooperate with would-be counterfeiters -- even as it tries to accommodate consumers who legitimately want or need images of the currency.
[...]
Making these digital copies is getting harder, thanks to secretive anti-counterfeiting technology built into some popular consumer hardware and software products at the request of government regulators and international bankers.
The technology detects and blocks attempts to view, scan or print copies of the redesigned $20 and $50 bills and, in a pop-up window, urges consumers to visit a Web site, www.rulesforuse.org, to learn about international counterfeit laws.
[...]
Precisely how the technology works is a mystery. The U.S. government keeps its inner workings a closely guarded secret, arguing that disclosing too much information could help counterfeiters circumvent protections.
[...]
The Federal Reserve earlier this year denied a request and an appeal by The Associated Press under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act to learn some details about the system. The AP, which first revealed the program's existence in January, sought to learn whether the technology surreptitiously tracks consumers who try to copy bills, which U.S. agencies and private vendors built it, and how much it cost.
The reserve's board of governors told the AP it located a stack of papers 52 inches tall about the mysterious technology but agreed to release only 14 pages. It said the other documents represented trade secrets, internal letters or law enforcement procedures that couldn't be disclosed under the information act.
One document obtained by the AP, a 1998 U.S. government business solicitation, mandated that "any color printer must include a tracing system that encodes system identification in any output. This will tie the output to the originating equipment so that forensic identification of the equipment is possible in the event of illegal printing of currency images due to failure or circumvention of the recognition system(s)...."
Other papers turned over to the AP said the anti-counterfeit technology "does not have the capacity to track the use of a personal computer or digital imaging tool."
[...]
Foster said the counterfeit protections built into consumer products recognize only the newly redesigned $20 and $50 bills, but upcoming changes to other currencies also will be expected to trigger the system.
Full article (http://us.cnn.com/2004/US/10/01/copying.dollars.ap/index.html).
Creative, intriguing... kind of creepy though, if you ask me. It probably wouldn't be as much so if they disclosed even vague details of how it works. Though the idea of any colour image having system details output into it is kind of weird too. o_O;;
Thoughts anyone?