Slashdot Mirror
Canon Blocks Copy Jobs Using Banned Keywords
aesoteric notes that a future version of Canon's document management system will include the exciting breakthrough technology that will OCR your printed and scanned documents, and
prevent distribution of keywords. Documents containing the offending words can be sent to the administrator, without actually telling the user just what word tripped the alarm. The article notes that simply using 1337 for example will get around it.
I wonder if this sort of censorship will find its way into public libraries. You know, they'll claim there is a national security interest in prevent certain kinds of pamphlets from being printed, or something to that effect, and before you know it a routine trip to the library will turn into an interrogation in a back room somewhere.
Palm trees and 8
All a publisher would have to do is to embed a code or passphrase or optical pattern on the pages of their copyrighted publication and then arrange with manufacturers such as Canon or Xerox not to duplicate those pages. The pattern could be a watermark in the background of the content, defeating attempts to obscure it with a post-it not or some such.
I predict a huge demand for older, dumber photocopiers.
I can see the fnords!
If you want to block copying of some documents, you can simply watermark them with the anti counterfeiting constellation. Use something that will print the constellation and print up a ream of paper. Use the anti copy paper for the documents you don't want copied.
Print this in yellow ink in the background.
http://globalpapersecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/150px-EURion.svg_.png/
The truth shall set you free!
Just use CAPTCHAs for any banned words, phrases, or other banned content.
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
It's basically a data loss prevention product. See a string of numbers that looks like a credit card or SSN? Sorry, you're not allowed to print/copy/fax that. Contact your security admin/supervisor to explain why you need to print employee socials and how you plan to safeguard/eventually dispose of that information.
I can see this being very useful for shops that have to deal with PCI or PII laws.
It's amazing how versatile the Chatroulette technology concept could be. The recognition of human body parts from images surprisingly seems to have more in-demand applications than computer vision in general; and all to control people and prevent them from doing stupid things.
Genitalia image detection could stop abuse of hand-washing robots, keep certain nastiness off slashdot, AI Physicians
It's amazing people drop to the level of stupidity they'd actually try to photocopy genitals, disregarding the obvious risks involved... that makes them dumber than the computer in that action.
This has nothing to do with foul language and everything to do with people walking out the door with account numbers, medical records, credit card info, social security numbers and other valuable private information.
Yes, this is true.
Although I don't know why this is "Breaking News" considering it has been offered on Xerox products for over 3 years.
And I should know, we sell this stuff to government departments purely based on the security we can offer them.
It might be easy to hand write the details off the screen for circumvention, but that is only going to net you a small data set. These systems are designend to stop people walking off with entire client databases and that type of thing. In the governemnt, it's more about keyword 'flagging' that sends the MIB to your desk on very short notice.
Dan. -- So what if it's spelt wrong, nobody's perfect
...this is for corporate enforcement, nothing more.
I share the same wishful thinking but...
Considering that many copiers also function as printers, it seems very possible that the keyword technology will end up in a networked printer. If that happens, a hack or backdoor feature to report access of documents with certain markings or keywords to a remote location certainly seems possible. Slowly send data by carefully crafted time server accesses or something and who would know? Couldn't info be passed along under the guise of periodic or startup firmware update checks? If one doesn't see the source of fax/print drivers, couldn't they also be crafted to pass along information?
To have OCR, one of these copiers is obviously a scanner integrated with a printer and some brains. Compared to what would already be included, it probably wouldn't take much more code to add spooky features. (Don't some printers/drivers already add subtle changes to imbed info in output that can indicate where it came from?)
Even consumer copiers not marketed as having the banned-keywords features could end up being sold with the same potential capabilities. It's not an unheard of concept. For example some DSL modems originally designed with firewalls shipped with modified firmware for certain ISPs that took away access to and visible signs of the firewalls in their web setup pages.
I remember when I was in school and I wanted to run some RPGs but didn't have any of the books anymore.. I couldn't stand having PDFs so I figured I would start printing out the books, 3 hole punch them and put them in 3 ring binders. So I started with the core books and moved on to the supplements. I don't know how many pages I printed. Several thousand easy. The first page it printed was a cover page. The school started catching on to how much was being printed so they limited each print job to something like 20 pages.
I know my example is about printing and not copying, but I could see where it would help to deal with similar abuses.
We do explain to parents applying for internet passes for their children that we don't filter, and a few parents decide to withhold permission from the kids or decide to only allow them access when the parent is there to watch over them.