https://github.com/iandennismiller/yellowdot

Commercial laser printers use tiny yellow dots track you; yellowdot makes this harder
https://github.com/iandennismiller/yellowdot

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Commercial laser printers use tiny yellow dots track you; yellowdot makes this harder

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/iandennismiller/yellowdot
• Owner: iandennismiller
• Created: 2009-05-31T23:50:14.000Z (over 16 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2012-12-11T16:54:15.000Z (almost 13 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2023-04-18T03:24:47.959Z (over 2 years ago)
• Language: CSS
• Homepage:
• Size: 7.68 MB
• Stars: 3
• Watchers: 3
• Forks: 1
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: readme.pod

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README

          
=head1 NAME

yellowdot - create an image file containing yellow dots

=head1 SYNOPSIS

yellowdot --paper letter --filename overlay.png

Options:

    --paper         size of paper (letter or A4)

    --filename      name of output file

=head1 DESCRIPTION

For years, commercial printers have quietly inserted yellow dots

into their output for the purpose of tracking which printer

was used to create any document.  The purpose of the "yellowdot" 

software is simply to bring attention to the issue, and to thwart

amateur attempts to use these yellow dots to breach privacy.

This software will create a PNG containing yellow dots that can 

then be overlaid onto existing printer output.  These dots are 

randomly distributed across the image, and are therefore not 

useful for securely obfuscating the identity that is encoded 

within the printer's generated dot pattern.  However, "yellowdot"

raises the amount of resources that must be expended to 

successfully identify the printer that generated a given document.

It is hoped that "yellowdot" can be used to thwart amateur 

attempts to breach privacy, such as could conceivably be 

practiced in an office environment.  

The commercial printer yellow dot initiative has been endorsed 

in some capacity by the United States Secret Service for the 

purpose of thwarting currency counterfeiting.  As of October 2008, 

there is no law that requires printers to generate yellow dots for

any purpose, including identification purposes.  This software is 

not intended to be used for committing fraud, and it is the belief 

of the author that this software, in fact, cannot be used for such

purposes.  By analyzing a sufficient sample of printer output, the

"noise" that is generated by this program can be eliminated, and 

the original printer source can be reconstructed.

=head1 OPTIONS

=over 4

=item --paper

    Two paper sizes are currently supported: letter and A4.  Only

    300 DPI is supported, so the paper size option results in the 

    creation of a bitmap that will fill a complete side of the

    indicated paper type, when printed at 300 DPI.

=item --filename

    

    The output will be stored in a file with this name.  It 

    should end in .png or .PNG, since that is the only format 

    supported now.  However, using another extension won't 

    ruin anything.

=item --density     

    not implemented yet

=item --margin      

    not implemented yet

=back

=head1 DOWNLOAD

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git clone git@github.com:iandennismiller/yellowdot.git

=head1 INSTALLATION

sudo cpan -i GD

chmod 755 bin/yellowdot.pl

sudo mv bin/yellowdot.pl /usr/local/bin

=head1 SEE ALSO

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=head1 AUTHOR

Ian Dennis Miller 

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2008 Ian Dennis Miller

=head1 LICENSE

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person

obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation

files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without

restriction, including without limitation the rights to use,

copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell

copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the

Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following

conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be

included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above 

copyright holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise 

to promote the sale, use or other dealings in this Software 

without prior written authorization.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,

EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES

OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND

NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT

HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,

WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING

FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR

OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

=cut