Relatively cheap digital scanning technology could soon
be available at your neighborhood office-supply store. The funding platform IndieGoGo.com
is trying to raise money for a mass-market device that, if successful, will make
it much easier to copy and share printed files and will retail for less than
$400.
The Czur,
pronounced “Caesar,” is able to digitize printed pages in less than a second
and an entire book in a matter of minutes. The device even has software that
corrects for the curves of bound pages, fingerprints, and page-to-text
contrast.
The problem for Keith Darnay, online manager of The Bismarck
Tribune, Bismarck, ND, is that making the copying process easier also makes it
easier to illegally copy and share any type of publication, including college
textbooks.
“I
have no doubt the developers of this technology have nothing but good
intentions. They see their device as a way to empower everyone with something
that allows them to digitize personal documents or commercial publications they
have purchased and owned,” Darnay wrote in a column.
“But you can almost guarantee there will be those few who will take advantage
of the scanner to illegally copy and distribute material that doesn’t belong to
them.”
