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Topic: Anti-Counterfeit code in Photoshop

Mark Lensenmayer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1605
From: Upper Arlington, OH
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 01-20-2004 05:45 PM

A user posting to Bugtraq has reported that some Hewlett-Packard print drivers also have this currency restriction. The driver will print a small portion of the image, then refer the user to a RULES FOR USE web page.

Here is what Richard M. Smith found when he looked at some of the driver code:

quote:
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.

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-20-2004 11:46 PM

I would think that the answer to that question would be to spike the printer inks with "Unobtainium". ie: Some sort of chemical that would never be found in real money which could instantly differentiate real currency from fake.

Not to say that current printing technology (inks, intaglio process, etc.) don't already make it very easy to tell the genuine article from an inkjet copy. Let's just make sure it's harder to slip the fakes by bill changers, etc.

But then, again, electronic bill changers ALREADY look for the "Unobtainium" contained in genuine bills. Bill changers are programmed to look for about 5 or 6 different characteristics, if I remember right. Thus, unless the potential counterfeiter has some real savvy it would be pretty damn hard to slip one by one of those machines.

The only thing that one could hope to do with an inkjet fake is slip one by an unsuspecting cashier. Unfortunately that's too easy, even without good inkjet printers. Cripes! I've seen cashier take really bad "corner clips" before. You don't need good copies to slide one by the average cashier!

This whole anti-counterfeit issue is really a moot point!

Corner Clip: Taking a lower denomination note, such as a $1 bill, and pasting on the numbers clipped off the corners of another high denomination bill, such as a $20 bill and passing it off as a $20. Funny thing... $20 bills don't usually have George Washington's picture on them! Still! I've seen them pass on more than one occasion!

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