[8041] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: BSA deploys imaginary pirate software detector vans
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ian BROWN)
Mon Nov 13 13:16:21 2000
To: Neil Johnson <njohnson@interl.net>
Cc: cypherpunks <cypherpunks@EINSTEIN.ssz.com>,
cryptography <cryptography@c2.net>,
cypherpunks <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net>, ross.anderson@cl.cam.ac.uk
In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 09 Nov 2000 18:26:44 CST." <011b01c04aac$e8b0b8e0$0100a8c0@nandts>
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Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 09:30:57 +0000
Message-ID: <548.973848657@cs.ucl.ac.uk>
From: Ian BROWN <I.Brown@cs.ucl.ac.uk>
>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
