[tartoran]

Similar type of thing was used to trace typewriters behind the iron curtain before the communism collapsed. All owners of typewriters had to register their typewriters with the police and they all had peculiarities that would trace back to each typewriter. They'd load a page and type all the characters and that was it. I guess it had more of an psychological impact as the matching would be quite difficult. I guess they were afraid of independent people writing manifests or disseminating information.

Illegal information was circulating somewhat freely though, maybe not very sensitive stuff (people were self censoring very political stuff as they were afraid of repercussions from authorities), but lots of things from the west were circulating: magazines, books, videotapes and so on.

Growing up there it was drilled in us that counterfeit money is an extremely grave offense and it is punishable severely, and the same story with drugs. I was surprised to find out that counterfeit money was circulating in the states and when I received such a bill I asked a police officer what am I supposed to do with that. He told me to just keep it:) He said I shouldn't bother to report it as nobody would really care about it.

[leephillips]

I guess attitudes toward this crime have changed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investiga...

[nerdponx]

It's still very very illegal to produce counterfeit money. Individuals typically aren't prosecuted for having it because they might have received it thinking it was legitimate.