Copyright & Other Laws Governing Scanning

Jeff Needleman provides the following information regarding this:

Use a Scanner, Go to Jail by Mark H. Anbinder, Contributing Editor TidBITS Magazine

Hewlett-Packard included a bulletin in a recent mailing to dealers warning them that, when demonstrating the capabilities of HP scanners, they must avoid scanning money and other sensitive documents. Anyone who does scan such documents risks Constructive Seizure of their computer equipment, up to $25,000 in fines, or up to fifteen years imprisonment. Apparently HP has learned of an incident where U.S. Treasury agents seized an HP ScanJet IIc scanner, HP DeskJet 500C printer, and an HP Vectra personal computer. The dealer and HP sales representative involved spent a considerable amount of time retrieving the equipment. HP provides this list of guidelines from the U.S. government.

Unacceptable scanning:

*Money *Federal Reserve notes * U.S. postage stamps * Foreign postage stamps * Revenue stamps * Other negotiable valuated articles (for example, checks, bonds,and securities) * dentification documents (for example, drivers license and governmental identification documents

Acceptable scanning:

*Photographs of people, places, or things * Pictures from magazines, newsletters, and calendars * Other similar non-sensitive documents

We wish to add that, if you do scan photographs (or even text) from copyrighted publications, its important to secure permission before using that material in any way. Perhaps the government is concerned that computer input and output devices are becoming powerful enough that counterfeiting is (or will soon be) a real concern. Weve seen the latest output technology, though, and were skeptical that counterfeiting with multi-million-dollar technology would be cost-effective! Of course, until output quality catches up with the governments concerns, well be unable to avoid the image of a crook lugging along a 24-bit color 1152 x 870 monitor, trying to convince someone that the scanned image on it is legal tender!

Copyright 1990-1992 Adam & Tonya Engst. Non-profit, non-commercial publications may reprint articles if full credit is given.

Until recently, I was quite sure that scanning fell under the usual laws restricting reproduction of U. S. and foreign security obligations. The old laws were liberalized back in 1958 and again in 1968 to allow reproduction in some cases. The primary exceptions to the usual prohibitions are given in Title 18, U. S. Code, Section 504: Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter, the following are permitted:

[A-C provisions deal with postage/revenue/other securities of the U. S.] and (D) postage stamps, revenue stamps, notes, bonds, and any other obligation or other security of any foreign government, bank or corporation, for philatelic, numismatic, educational, historical, or newsworthy purposes in articles, books, journals, newspapers, or albums (but not for advertising purposes, except illustrations of stamps, and paper money in philatelic or numismatic articles, books, journals, newspapers, or albums). The section goes on to spell out how the printed illustrations must appear. All have to be in black and white, except that postage stamps can be illustrated in color; all must be of a size less than 75% or more than 150% in linear dimension of each item illustrated (except that US stamps can be exact size if illustrated in b&w). The negatives and plates used have to be destroyed after their final use.

Theres another section regarding film, microfilm or slides for projection upon a screen of such items; theyre allowed completely except for advertising purposes (philatelic advertising is allowed), but you cant make prints or other reproductions from such films or slides except by permission of the Secretary of the Treasury.

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