"trap streets" fictitious streets, towns, or features put on maps deliberately were a clever watermark: if a competitor’s map included the same fake detail, it was clear evidence of copying.
Some mapmakers added fake bends in rivers, nonexistent buildings, or altered mountain elevations. The practice was mirrored in other fields, dictionary editors, for instance, inserted fake words called “mountweazels.” Though digital mapping has reduced the need for such tricks, trap streets remain a fascinating chapter in the history of cartography and copyright protection.
When I worked for Champion Spark Plug, they did something like this to find out if another company was copying their catalogs. They were owned by Cooper Industries at the time, so they added a "Cooper" section to the power equipment section. The items listed were things like Aerator, Compactor and a few other things. When you looked at the first letter of each item, it spelled AC Delco.
ReplyDeleteWhoa! That's brilliant, and wow, this technique is still being used! AC Delco, that's genius! It reminds me of the secret message in poems, or what I learned in some grade school story, about the 1st letter of each line being a sentence on it's own, from the top of the page to the bottom, on the 1st letter only. It might have been some detective story/solution/clue
Delete