Enforcing reproduction rights for hard copies of documents

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program recorded thereon, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:

• electronically scan a surface of the physical hard copy article using a scanning mechanism to generate scanned data;
• extract a reproduction control identifier from the scanned data;
• and
• control output of a reproduction of the physical hard copy article based on the reproduction control identifier that was extracted from the scanned data, wherein the physical hard copy article has a plurality of reproduction control identifiers present in multiple locations on the surface of the physical hard copy article such that content of portions of the physical hard copy article provided on the surface cannot be electronically scanned by the scanning mechanism without detecting a reproduction control identifier in the plurality of reproduction control identifiers, wherein the surface of the physical hard copy article has a first portion of content and a second portion of content, the first portion of content having different content provided thereon than the second portion of content, and wherein the plurality of reproduction control identifiers comprises one or more first reproduction control identifiers associated with the first portion of content and one or more second reproduction control identifiers, the one or more first reproduction control identifiers encoding different identifier information than the one or more second reproduction control identifiers.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• electronically scan a surface of the physical hard copy article using a scanning mechanism to generate scanned data;
• extract a reproduction control identifier from the scanned data;
• and
• control output of a reproduction of the physical hard copy article based on the reproduction control identifier that was extracted from the scanned data, wherein the physical hard copy article has a plurality of reproduction control identifiers present in multiple locations on the surface of the physical hard copy article such that content of portions of the physical hard copy article provided on the surface cannot be electronically scanned by the scanning mechanism without detecting a reproduction control identifier in the plurality of reproduction control identifiers, wherein the surface of the physical hard copy article has a first portion of content and a second portion of content, the first portion of content having different content provided thereon than the second portion of content, and wherein the plurality of reproduction control identifiers comprises one or more first reproduction control identifiers associated with the first portion of content and one or more second reproduction control identifiers, the one or more first reproduction control identifiers encoding different identifier information than the one or more second reproduction control identifiers.