CDR: Re: BSA deploys imaginary pirate software detector vans

[Tib]

On Fri, 10 Nov 2000, Ian BROWN wrote:

> >Wasn't there some articles some time ago about Microsoft doing research into
> >Tempest/Van Eck (sp) radiation ? It was speculated  at the time that they
> >were going include software to "broadcast" their serial numbers so that
> >illegal copies could be detected.
> 
> This was a suggestion by Markus Kuhn and Ross Anderson (at Cambridge
> University). The paper is at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ih98-tempest.pdf
> 
> "Our suggestion is that software packages include in their screen layout a few 
> lines with a signal that encodes the license serial number plus a random value 
> . . . a "software detector van" can be used to patrol business districts and 
> other areas where software piracy is suspected. If the van receives twenty 
> signals from the same copy of a software from a company that has only licensed 
> five copies, then probable cause for a search warrant has been established." 
> p.13

Hope I'm not being totally naive about the capability of computer hardware, but
I sure don't recall my PC (or any that I have ever had or can think of
seeing) having short range broadcasting capabilities. How would this be
theorheticly possible (despite the utter nonsense that the rumor must be) to
accomplish, if at all?

<EOL>
Tib