Digital watermarks again!
Joe Sixpack won't believe his file contains a digital watermark with
his name in it unless there is a freely distributed Windows/Mac
program which reads the watermark and so spits out his name and other
personal details.
That being the case, it is only a matter of time before the code and
the watermark algorithm is reverse-engineered. Then a program can be
written to remove the watermark.
What use is the watermark anyway? It is only applicable to files
generated for a specific, legally identifiable customer. Therefore it
does not apply to pre-pressed CD/DVD etc. discs or to broadcasts via
the Net, TV, radio etc.
Who is going to prosecute Joe Sixpack or Jo Lipstick? Not a big
company which is interested in its public image. Not a small company,
because of the the costs. Maybe a big company which doesn't care
about its reputation - to set and example. But that would only
encourage all the other Joes and Jos to copy some more!
What's the use when Joe or Joe's watermarked, or proprietary-encoded
audio file must be reproduced via a PC soundcard, and there are
programs to write the raw 16 bit data to disk as .WAV or perhaps as
.MP3? I guess the same principle applies to video.
(Linear media such as text, audio and video cannot be copy-protected.
Material constituting computer software - something interactive which
must run on a CPU and do things with a user - can be protected
reasonably well via hardware keys or better still, live links to a
server via the Net. The security of such transactions would be a
worry for network administrators . . . and anyway, watermarking is
only for linear media.)
If the watermark is inaudible, then why should we believe it will
survive compression schemes which cut to the bone of human perception?
If it is audible, then why would anyone want to buy the watermarked
material? Considering the bizarre beliefs in so-called "high-end"
hi-fi (which resemble religiously inspired fear and fervor - such as
so-called clock jitter in SP/DIF electrical/optical cables,
oxygen-free copper power cords . . . ) then why would this segment of
the market accept deliberately altered goods, especially when they
can't hear it but *know* it's there?
Both the Internet and CD-Rs put mass digital copying in the hands of
consumers. Content creators need to make the most of this, not fool
themselves they can prevent it. They need to build positive, trusting
relationships with people who might be prepared to purchase their
material. There is no alternative. Building these kinds of
relationships would be very difficult with the old pre-pressed disc
(or cylinder in the century before last) paradigm which constitutes
the established record industry. Those are mass-market, time-delayed
capital- transport- and labour-intensive approaches - but worst of all
they are one-way.
Fortunately, the Net is the ideal basis for building these lasting,
happy relationships.
To continue this line of discussion, with diagrams, see something I
wrote in 1995, which is still largely relevant: Music Marketing in
the Age of Electronic Delivery:
http://www.firstpr.com.au/musicmar/
In all the technical forms and business scenarios I have heard of,
digital watermarks/fingerprints are technically weak and relatively
useless in a business sense. Even if they were strong and useful in
the way they were intended, I believe the intention in many instances
is wrong.
These schemes only survive because:
1 - There is some impressive-sounding, super-secret, crypto-secure
technical basis for them,
2 - because there is a one group of people who are willing to sell
them, and
3 - because there is another group of people (artists and owners of
their work) who like what they are told about watermarks
etc. but lack the technical understanding and/or vision to realise
they are next to useless, or worse.
- Robin
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Robin Whittle[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.firstpr.com.au
Heidelberg Heights, Melbourne, Australia
First Principles Research and expression: Consulting and
technical writing. Music. Internet music
marketing. Telecommunications. Consumer
advocacy in telecommunications, especially
privacy. M-F relationships. Kinetic sculpture.
Real World Electronics and software for music including:
Interfaces Devil Fish mods for the TB-303, Akai sampler
memory and Csound synthesis software.
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