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Mandatory Banknote Detection Code?
metamatic writes "The European Union is planning to introduce legislation to make it mandatory for software developers to add black-box banknote detection code to their graphics software.How will this apply to open source software? Is it time to get writing to your Euro-MP?"
Link here
got sig?
As far as in the USA, most scanners will print something over the scanned money. Generally its "Void" in stripes over the entire scan. Copiers are worse. There are several Xerox models that will literally lock up until a service tech fixes it if American money is inserted.
I see little in the need to copy a bill. We all have issues with forgeries and counterfitting ruining the value of the dollar/euro. Why not?
Sigs are nice guns
The term for faking currency is "forgery" with fake currency being "counterfeit". "Piracy" has nothing to do with it.
Cool idea. Won't work though
The positioning of the circles with respect to the other circles is very important. Unless you've got an extremely flat abdomen, the positioning will get screwed up. And well, this being /. and all, I kinda doubt that you have such abs :-)
The "partern" is a series of circles with the correct proportial relationship between the distance and the diameters of the circles. Therefore, you don't have to know what the 2008 currency design will look like, instead you can presume that the 2008 series designers are going to follow the patern that the code was already designed to notice.
It is not going to stop any/many criminals, but I think the main idea is to stop kids or newbie counterfeiters from printing money easily. You would be surprised at how little attention cashiers pay when a store is busy...
Think of the Windows XP activation code... sure there are ways around it, but for your average Joe and Susan who try to install their one copy onto three machines it won't work unless they have a fascinating story for the MS people on the phone, and they will be pressured to comply.
>
>What about on the back of the t-shirt?
Here's an image of the pattern. As you can see, it's pretty subtle. Putting the shirt directly under a scanner will probably trigger the protection, but wearing it will almost certainly mess up the pattern enough for it not to be recognised. The human body just isn't very flat anywhere.
Of course, I haven't actually tried it myself, so I could be wrong. If that's so, then such a shirt would be wicked cool.
Similar to gun control measures, this only does one thing - takes a perfectly legal thing out of the hands of law-abiding people.
Wake up, mister - this is nothing to do with your United States of America, this is a report in a British paper on what's happening in the European Union.
Newsflash - guns are not a perfectly legal thing in the UK. You own a handgun, you go to jail. You own a shotgun or a rifle, you damn well better have a license for it or you are in deep shit.
If you'd read the article, you'd also know that it is a criminal offence in the UK to reproduce currency in any way, shape, or form. Your 37-year old woman trying to use banknotes in an advertisement is breaking the law if she tries it in this country, and ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Early attempts at marketing paper money, particularly the 'shinplasters' of the American Civil War, were marked by the same disdain you show for plastic now.
This was conquered over the long term by assuring the general public that they could turn in their dollar bills for real silver or gold, in the form of gold and silver certificates. By the time the Federal Reserve started issuing notes which weren't directly backed by gold or silver in 1914 or thereabouts, everyone had grown accustomed to using paper currency. Now, finding a silver certificate in your change is almost impossible, and even if you did, it won't be redeemed for a 90% silver dollar any longer. Yet people trust the paper. It's just paper!
In regards the fragility of magnetic cards - you can burn paper currency, right? Yet I don't see every person with a gas range (or smokers) losing their cash. This is analogous to the magnetic issue.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
the larger the note's value, the larger the note
Same in the UK, but I don't think it's true for the Euro. However, there isn't a great deal of difference in size, and most people would just see the 20 and think, Says 20, not regular paper, magnetic strip, it's a 20.
The braille seems like a good idea, and easy to implement - assuming politicians or whoever else makes these decisions knows about them, why not adopt it? Good for PR (counterfeiters might not like them, but the blind people would - and blind people are the one group they can't afford to annoy any more), bad for forgery. It might cost a few thousand to modify the mints, but in the long run it would save a couple of million.
Xerox has been embedding such 'watermarks' with color copiers for years. They claim the watermarks are encrypted and the government can't identify the printer without Xerox's help (like that's supposed to be a comforting thought).
The more valuable Euro banknotes are indeed physically larger than less valuable notes. Here's a link for you.
As for braille, the notes do not have any braille codes on them, but the banknotes are printed in relief, using a special printing method known as intaglio. The EUR 200 and EUR 500 banknotes have tactile marks printed in intaglio and positioned along their edges. This should help blind people to recognize the notes.
Follow your Euro bills at EBT
Yes I agree, the banknote detection code is just an annoyance, it doesn't really stop the forgeries.
As for forgery rates, there were 551 286 found counterfeit Euro banknotes in 2003, most of them were 50 EUR notes. This can be seen from the annual report of the European Central Bank, see chapter 3.2.
Follow your Euro bills at EBT
We don't have one dollar bills mog. ;-)
Another thing that would make it difficult is the plastic window thingy on the notes.
Each note has a transparent section on it. The transparent section is a different design and shape for different values of the note.
Even if the notes weren't difference sizes and textures, even if it were possible to bleach them some how. The transparent section would still be different for different values of notes.
I must say I like the plastic money over our old paper money, I've saved hundreds of dollars in potentially lost money from the washing machine.
Can't Copy Me Tshirt
every bill has braille ...
No braille, but the notes have intaglio print (raised ink) so that you can feel the design; this may be of use to the blind to identify the note.
The different length of notes was to allow the use of a note gauge - insert the note, read the braille value that remains exposed.
Here is a list of the security features of Australian banknotes.