Bart Nagel in Mondo

[David Mandl]

> From: Dave Otto <dave at marvin.jta.edd.ca.gov>
> 
> Check out the lead article in the "Summer 94" issue of _Mondo2000_.
> It is a spoof by Bart Nagel that starts off sounding like steganography.
> 
> The article basically states that the photo-journalist-publisher industry
> is proposing that all images be encoded using stego techniques to contain
> unique identifiers that would prevent copy infringements.  The article
> starts in a *VERY* believable fashion before trailing off into an obvious
> spoof.  Very well done.

It's not that far-fetched, though.  There are filters for Adobe Photoshop
that will do this sort of thing right now--they'll imbed copyright symbols
in the image, for example (there was just a big discussion of this very
issue on the Photoshop list).  A more sophisticated technique might be hiding
an unspoofable signed message somewhere in the image.  This is just the flip
side of the LSB stego techniques cypherpunks have been talking about all
along. I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of practice becomes widespread
as electronic image manipulation becomes more universal.  It won't stop the
pirates, though.

   --Dave.