Censorship by multi-function printer is here. In this case, however, it's more about protecting IP than anything else. Canon's new Uniflow 5 software can prevent users from printing, scanning, faxing, or copying documents containing specific words, such as project names or client names.
The system naturally requires a Uniflow print server and Uniflow-enabled Canon imaging devices. In addition to blocking the function, the print server will email the administrator a PDF copy of the document in question, as well as optionally sending the end user an email informing him that his job has been blocked. It will not, however, identify the keyword causing the fault, which keeps the list of blocked keywords secure.
However, nothing is completely foolproof. Canon representatives confirmed that a clever user could get around the system, if they guessed which keyword was blocking the job, by substituting characters. For example, instead of using Os, a user could use zeros (such as z00 instead of zoo).
There's no word on exactly when Uniflow 5 equipped print servers will be on the market, which is probably good, at least for now, for anyone trying to fax documents to Wikileaks.
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