Maybe it is some _copyrighted_ beacon? I've read somewhere that Oracle have made some verse a part of some network API of theirs to be able to copyright it.
The original LEGO Mindstorms had a handshaking mechanism like this. The firmware for the RCX brick was stored in battery-backed RAM, so you had to re-upload it via infrared whenever you changed the batteries. But the ROM bootloader would only accept a firmware image if it contained the string:
> "Do you byte, when I knock?"
After uploading, the host computer would send an "unlock request" with the string "LEGO®", at which point the RCX would return the other half of the rhyme:
> "Just a bit off the block!"
I assume the only reason for jumping through these hoops was to have a legal excuse to discourage other companies from making interoperable products. I have no idea whether this strategy would have actually held up in court; in any case, there were plenty of homebrew tools that just embedded the magic strings anyway.
Something in nature like "DontstealOSX" or whatever that SMBIOS string in Mac machines is called?
In any case, doing this to an API is just plain nasty... but I believe at least under European law it's still getting trumped by the right to interoperability and reverse engineering.
Reminds me of the folklore.org[1] story about the Steve Jobs-requested, Susan Kare-designed bitmap embedded in the original Macintosh ROM to catch cloners.
That strategy doesn't work in my country as the law clearly stated mere protocol is not copyrightable.
Another interesting case was, Nintendo released a floppy disk with their logo relief and use its presence for DRM purpose. When third party released a compatible floppy disk, Nintendo sued them for trademark violation. Nintendo lost.
