Funny Money
I wondered yesterday what would happen if I tried to photocopy a £20 note.
The following happened:
- The machine scanned the front of the note
- It started to beep
- It displayed “Unable to copy this image”
- It spat out a sheet of paper with a dark blue rectangle the size of the print area
- It emailed EuroPol via the network connection, CC: Mervyn King
- Our firewall blocked the email due to Corporate policy
- We lost building power.
When the lights came back on again, I was able to photocopy the back of the note without any problem.
(OK, I made the last three bullet points up…)
So, what compulsion/coersion did Governments apply to ensure that photocopier manufacturers included EUrion banknote rejection software? Probably a very simple one- if you don’t do it you don’t get Public Sector Contracts. (& the public sector do an awful lot of photocopying).
The rules are here and an explanation of Eurion here. (It seems it is more complex than just the EUrion with Photoshop).
That is indeed shady business and interesting to boot.
Comment by jameshigham — November 8, 2007 @ 8:37 pm
Well I was believing you until the last point. After James’s posts I am starting to believe anything is possible.
Comment by jmb — November 9, 2007 @ 2:21 am
you had me worried when I read the last 3 for a minute! And there I was thinking you’d gone all serious…
Comment by Welshcakes Limoncello — November 9, 2007 @ 8:12 pm