When an original document is copied, the Canon Document Scan Lock kit can be programmed to superimpose meta data in the dots which includes the serial number of the machine used to make the copy, and the time that the copy was made.
When anyone attempts to re-copy the copy of the document, Canon's ImageRunner Advance will refuse to carry out the operation, reporting that the document contains embedded data. Because the metadata is repeated in the dot pattern, Canon shows in a demonstration to Infosecurity that it is not possible to copy even part of a page that had been torn from the main document.
While the feature promises to stop internal copying and to protect copied data within environments that have standardised on the proprietary Canon technology, representatives privately admitted that there would be nothing to stop employees from simply taking copied documents out of a building, and copy the data somewhere else. That said, a human-readable watermark is also superimposed diagonally across the document by the Scan Lock system.
Canon also announced an agreement with Adobe to integrate the ImageRunner Advance with the software vendor's LiveCycle Rights Management policy server. The Adobe software manages the rights of employees and third parties to read a document in electronic form. When someone scans a document on Canon's printer, it can be automatically encoded as a PDF with policies set directly using the printer's LCD screen. It is then sent via email, or uploaded to a folder, and automatically linked to the LiveCycle server.