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The person who photographed every page of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and distributed it on the internet could be traced using his or her camera’s serial number, photographic experts said yesterday.
Every digital photograph contains electronic tags called metadata or “Exchangeable Image File Format” (Exif) data that record information about the image and the camera it was taken on. Analysis of the illegal copy of the book suggests that the images were taken using a Canon Rebel 350 camera with the serial number 560151117. The manufacturer can track this serial number if the owner either registered it or had it serviced.
Vic Solomon of Canon said that it was difficult to manipulate Exif data. “It is like the picture’s DNA. You can’t switch it off. Every image has it. Some software can be used to strip or edit the information, but you can’t edit every field.”
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I publish many of my photos on my web site and always strip out the Exif data. It's very easy to do with some thing like Irfanview. Only a amateur would leave in the Exif data because it greatly increases the file size of the image.
Stephen Matthews, Newbury, Berkshire
I hope they catch him. There is no need to do this but pure meanness.
Valorie, Toledo,