Canon has claimed to identify the serial number of the camera that produced a bootleg of the new harry potter book. Canon assumes that the product – in this case a rebel 350 – perhaps may be sent to customer service for maintenance since most products tend to have technical flaws in the first 3 years of purchase.
So perhaps Canon is telling us here that they are eavesdropping on customers who buy their quality products and send them in to maintenance. Well its not that Canon has never done something like this before.
In 2004 Canon was awarded the German big brother award for placing a digital serial number in their copy machines making it possible to retrace any document to a certain machine.
I bet countries that suppress freedom of speech really love this feature tracing people who take photos or copy flyers to express their thoughts against any institution that does not suit them and stepping out in public would place them in a situation where they may risk their freedom or even lives.
So now i now why Canon uses a cash back system.
just my thoughts as a long term Canon customer after reading this article (german)