Security clampdown on the home PC banknote forgers

[John Gilmore]

> > Will the banknote detection software be made publicly available to the
> > Gimp developer team?  
...
> It's time to start wearing t-shirts bearing the image of a banned banknote.
> (To circumvent counterfeiting laws, wear the banknote of a foreign country).
> Imagine the frustration of the police when they can't photocopy your picture.

My proposal, when this stuff surfaced a few months ago, was that we build
two filter modules for the GIMP:

  *  One *detects* the banknote pattern, putting up a little
     constellation symbol or currency symbol in the corner of the GUI,
     or optionally some sort of unobtrusive pop-up.  And does nothing else.

  *  One *inserts* the banknote pattern into existing images.  This makes
     them unprocessable by PhotoShop and other government-monkeywrenched
     proprietary software or printers.  Isn't mandatory DRM wonderful?

In my malicious moments, I think GIMP should ship with both of these
filters turned on by default.

A third filter would remove the banknote pattern from images -- or would
cripple it sufficiently well that it is not detectable by other software.

Every country is going to have to work out for itself whether it
thinks that free countries can ban expressive works such as software.
Though we set early precedents in the US (Bernstein & Junger), this is
still not considered a settled question (or DeCSS and DVD X-Copy would
not have lost in court).  The less honest judges are still willing to
twist fundamental principles, in order to get the result that
Hollywood wants.  Now in the EU we'll see the first round of TRUE
mischief that the wrong answer can cause.

	John

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