Laser printers leave watermarks.

Post by **shadd_** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 2:19 am

http://news.com.com/2061-10789_3-5811739.html?tag=nl

Color laser printers print hidden data that lets law enforcement agencies tell which printer was used and when, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

holy fuck owned! maybe a disclaimer on the copier in plain view would be in the best interests of users and police.

**WARNING, ALL COPIES OF CURRENCY, TRAIN TICKETS AND HAIRY ASS SHOTS CAN AND WILL BE TRACED TO THIS COPIERS ID#**

Post by **Foo** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 2:27 am

Eh? This is old news. The new news came yesterday, that some company had managed to reverse engineer the chip/software that was doing it.

Post by **shadd_** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 2:32 am

new news already?

Post by **Foo** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 2:41 am

The whole printer watermarking thing must be about 1 year old.

Sorry

Post by **shiznit** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 2:49 am

I wonder how it's done.

Post by **Chupacabra** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 2:55 am

water

this is new news for me btw

Post by **Psyche911** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 3:00 am

Chupacabra wrote:water

this is new news for me btw

And where does the water come from?
Do you put water in your printer?

Post by **Canidae** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 3:18 am

Its the number of the beast

Post by **Chupacabra** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 4:29 am

Psyche911 wrote:
Chupacabra wrote:water

this is new news for me btw
And where does the water come from?
Do you put water in your printer?

that would explain a lot of the problems ive been having...

Post by **R00k** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 5:39 am

Unraveled:
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/docucolor/

Post by **Doombrain** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:52 am

Even without looking at that link I can tell you it's done with yellow dots. I've got a program here to decode epson laser printers. It’s based on the same anti fraud system used by scanners. Fucking old news.

Post by **MKJ** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:56 am

isnt it the same system adobe uses to prevent people from opening scans of bills?
sort of moneyshots, if you will :icon32:

Post by **Transient** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:14 pm

MKJ wrote:isnt it the same system adobe uses to prevent people from opening scans of bills?
sort of moneyshots, if you will :icon32:

:icon26:

Post by **Dave** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:38 pm

Even if they can trace it, they don't know who owns the printer/scanner unless you send in the warranty card with your serial number. Maybe if you buy it online or something they keep track, but no store you go to is going to report your serial/name to the manufacturer. About the best they can do is track which geographical location it went to and narrow their search

Post by **plained** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 1:41 pm

Dave wrote:Even if they can trace it, they don't know who owns the printer/scanner unless you send in the warranty card with your serial number. Maybe if you buy it online or something they keep track, but no store you go to is going to report your serial/name to the manufacturer. About the best they can do is track which geographical location it went to and narrow their search

lol

Post by **Doombrain** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 3:21 pm

MKJ wrote:isnt it the same system adobe uses to prevent people from opening scans of bills?
sort of moneyshots, if you will :icon32:

The very same, the reading kit's just a blue light scanner. On euro bank notes it looks for five yellow stars in a particular order. The document ID tag lasers print is the same, just more elaborate.

Post by **Doombrain** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 3:22 pm

plained wrote:
Dave wrote:Even if they can trace it, they don't know who owns the printer/scanner unless you send in the warranty card with your serial number. Maybe if you buy it online or something they keep track, but no store you go to is going to report your serial/name to the manufacturer. About the best they can do is track which geographical location it went to and narrow their search
lol

lol what?