Is currency anti-copying software government-mandated "spyware"?

by Richard M. Smith
http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com
Jan. 22, 2004

Last week, the Associated Press reported that Adobe has incorporated anti-copying technology in their Photoshop CS software which prevents users from opening image files of U.S. and European currency. Here's the article:

Adobe admits to currency blocker
http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11271~1882929,00.html

There are some unanswered questions raised by this quiet effort by U.S. and European governments to turn home computers into anti-counterfeiting "cops":

Besides graphic programs and printer drivers, what other kinds of software is this currency anti-copy technology being embedded in?
Will this move set a precedence for other government- mandated "spyware" for our home computers to make sure that we obey the law?
Will future versions of this technology, "phone home" to a government Web site with details about a violation of the currency copying rules? It would be very easy to include an email address, name of the image file, software serial number, etc. embedded in a Web bug URL when a violation has been detected.
Are companies being required to include currency anti-copying technology in their products? If not, what incentives are being offered to companies to include the technology on a voluntary basis?

To answer the first question, I looked on my own computer and discovered that HP has also been shipping currency anti-copying software in their printer drivers 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. This Web site, which is run by the European Central Bank, provides information about laws concerning the copying of the images of currency from around the world. Wording on the home page of this Web site implies that someone is guilty of breaking the law if they arrive at the site.

According to a few newsgroup messages posted in 2002 and 2003, folks are seeing this URL output 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. Click here for sample output.

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.

I located these printer drivers simply by searching all files in my Windows and Program Files directories for the string "rulesforuse". If other folks run this same experiment, please let me know of other programs which appear to contain currency anti-copy technology.

Jasc's Paint Shop Pro 8 software also includes the same currency anti-copy technology in it. The editting program will not allow images of new U.S. currency to be opened even though there are prefectly legal ways to use these images. Click here to see the warning message produced by the Paint Shop Pro 8 software.

According to press reports, a company named Digimarc (http://www.digimarc.com) is licensing the currency anti-copy technology to various software vendors. The company has refused to identify these vendors.

The European Union has floated a proposal to make this anti-copy technology mandatory in any> device or software capable of handling digital images:

http://www.ecb.int/pub/legal/c_25520031024en00080008.pdf

In the context of protecting euro banknotes against counterfeiting the European Central Bank (ECB) invites manufacturers based in the European Union (EU) and importers or distributors of products capable of handling digital images (hereinafter 'the industry') to submit comments in connection with the ECB's request to the Commission of the European Communities to initiate legislation making it mandatory to incorporate counterfeit deterrence technology into such products. Such legislation would apply to products produced, imported or distributed in the EU. Any individual, organisation or group of organisations may submit comments. images for the purposes of counterfeiting, to incorporate counterfeit deterrence technology.