Can Watermarking Help Find GPL Violations?

bitkid writes "I recently run across techniques that can be used to watermark program code. While I yet have to see some source code for this to play with, the authors claim that the watermarks can be introduced into the source code and can be found in the compiled executable. My question for the slashdot-crowd is: Do you think free software (GPL or other viral licenses) should be watermarked? This could help to find GPL violations (think Everybuddy or Linksys) or can be used in court someday against the next SCO to prove authorship. What might be the ramifications of this?"

Comments

The ramifications.

[caluml]

What might be the ramifications of this?"

It might cause the sky to fall down on our heads, or the atmosphere to evaporate, killing us all with solar radiation.

Re:Watermark?

[Doomrat]

we are talking about a bunch of 1s and 0s here. If it can be watermarked, it can be unwatermarked. A simple script will be able to rearrange stuff to disrupt the watermark without affecting the execution of the program.

Yes, a bit like how it's easy to reconstruct a burned down house from its ashes.

Coffee Marking

[HermanAB]

I don't know about water marking of code, but coffee marking is common.

Heck, I've lost two keyboards to spilled coffee so far this year...

Re:Not easy -- story submitter is confused

[WhaDaYaKnow]

(there's a tool called DATING that can do that - contact me for a copy, it's hard to find - and which the name is a pun to the IDA FLIRT abilities).

And also an excellent name if you want people to NEVER be able to find it using Google.