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Somebody (more likely a group of somebodies), somewhere is responsible for having gone to each and every printer manufacturer and done or said something to make

• schoen 2y ago
  If I remember correctly from the FOIA documents we got, it was a meeting or series of meetings with a Japanese printer industry association during the 1990s. I forgot if we learned whether the government side was a specific government or governments, or the consortium called Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group https://rulesforuse.org/ https://rulesforuse.org/ which has been involved in other related stuff (like making some software and devices refuse to process images that are detected to be images of currency!).
• theGeatZhopa 2y ago
  thats only for evidence/prosecution for fraud/criminal intents. If one say's "NO WAY I said and printed that contract" ... "Lemmy check...oh! You did. Its your printer. Look!". I think its not like "somebody gone to each..", but rather "... a good idea".
  • sneak 2y ago
    Preventing anonymous publishing is not a good idea, it is malicious. Wishing to publish anonymously is not exclusive to those perpetrating fraud or other crimes. Privacy is important to a free society.
    • theGeatZhopa 2y ago
      you can publish anonymously. no one hinders you. But in case it is illegal, prosecuters have evidence - which isn't malicious or bad per c'est. And, knowing which printer has been used for the illegal thing, doesn't mean the location of the printzer is known, too. So, no probs or conflict with that from my side. If you really afraid, just overlay your PDFs with noise of yellow dots before printing. Or apply a digimarc pattern onto that with gibberish. That will mitigate recognition unless the digimarc pattern is recognized and removed, which is kind of difficult if unknown (https://www.digimarc.com/ https://www.digimarc.com/). There are possibilities.
      • UncleEntity 2y ago
        Wait, you can publish anonymously as long as the government approves of your speech and doesn't hinder you? Then they throw bogus charges on you because "the process is the punishment" and to discourage other people saying things they don't like. Prior restraint is what some would call that.
        • theGeatZhopa 2y ago
          you've read, that: a. there are easy possibilities to poison the printed tracking code b. the location of the printer is not trackable by default (but for sure can be added through drivers. But then, tracking will be the smallest problem) c. there are laws what can be said and what not. Also, what is legal, free speech & thought, or, what is art, is defined. Other than that might give you problems. And it should. No one is above the law in a proper democracy, except your name is Trump of course. so, you can print what you want. But if its illegal, than I'm glad you get the punishment. But, for being able to punish you, the executive needs your location and know it's been you. How can they find out it was you, other then with "caught in the act"? If they have enough hints who you are and for being able to locate you, then the tracking code is just an evidence that you produced it. What if you use your neighbor's printer? What if you use the poisoning technique? Knowledge is all, when being a criminal. Others are not touched by that, and if, poisoning, old disposable printers or usage of neighbor's devices and the classical reproduction methods aka printing (industrial) are still tools, one can use. I don't understand the alarmism.
          • sneak 2y ago
            Simply being prosecuted maliciously without evidence is enough to ruin one’s life. It’s not a matter of illegal or legal. With the ability to identify perceived enemies of an administration, this weapon can be leveraged against anyone saying entirely legal things that the administration doesn’t like. It’s not alarmism, it’s simply realpolitik.
            • theGeatZhopa 2y ago
• RachelF 2y ago
  The original somebody was likely the US Secret service, who are also responsible for US dollar currency forgery policing. When color printers/copiers first appeared there was a concern about people photocopying money. The old joke was that your color photocopier "would pay for itself in no time".
• like_any_other 2y ago
  Notably, they didn't go to congress to have a law publicly debated and voted on. It was all hidden from the public.