CompuServe Thread

I read something recently that I found interesting, reasonable in theory, and somewhat absurd in the possibility of reality. The source is (and I feel ridiculous revealing this), Mondo 2000 Magazine– a new age art & technology rag, kind of like a cross between OMNI and Rolling Stone. This info is new to me but may already be old news, I don't know… The article talks about Universal Image Coding (UIC). This process embeds a numerical code into images of any sort, be it film-based, digital, motion and even halftone. Image originators register with some world agency and in turn receive some encrypting device that encodes their own unique number into their art. The code exists in every part of the image and remains intact within an area as small as .25 inch. Detection of the code was developed by Lawrence Livermore labs for the military. So, now that we've (thru tax dollars) paid for it, the hardware costs are very low. So low that it can easily be installed in virtually all scanning devices including scanners, fax machines, photocopiers, etc. By year's end there will be legislation mandating the technology be included in all scanning devices. Within two years, when you scan an image, your scanner will either dial up a network, or uplink to a satellite to pass the embedded code to the controlling agency who will then bill your VISA card and compensate the original artist. The compensation will be according to what the artist set up with the agency, it may be a flat fee, or based on the portion that you scanned, which, evidently is determined from the code sent. A humorous side note, architects, clothes designers, and others have joined with "hackers" to crack the UIC code. They plan to embed the code into their "art." That way, they would be properly compensated when photographers take pictures of their creations! I laugh at the whole UIC scheme, and applaud them for assuring that photographers don't "rip them off." Imagine a stucco sprayer embeddinng his code, and some fool shoots it for background imagery, only to be billed some huge amount! -Steve