Digital Watermarking for the Digital Age: Empowering Consumers and Protecting Copyrights
The Freedom of the Digital Age.
In the last ten years, the rapid proliferation of digital entertainment products has created a society of digital entertainment junkies. Today, consumers demand — and get — instant access to music, movies and programming that can be seen or heard virtually anywhere. And while this freedom and mobility represents a significant convenience for consumers — not to mention billions of dollars for various industries — it also has its problems.
Content identification has emerged as an important requirement for companies in the entertainment, consumer electronics, broadcast and information technology industries. When music, movies and programming are digitized, their commercial identities (the detailed information about the content, its copyright ownership or the purchasers’ rights) are lost, having been reduced to ones and zeros that only computers can read. This makes the content difficult to manage, protect and track, leaving the door wide open for both casual — and malicious — digital piracy and copyright infringement.
The Smart Solution for Content Identification.
Balancing the needs of consumers with the rights of content owners is of paramount importance to many industries today. Consumers deserve to have access to the entertainment options available to them. Content owners and artists deserve to be recognized and compensated for their work. But the rapid proliferation of technology has made this balancing act increasingly difficult. The U.S. Supreme Court recently tackled this issue in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster, in which the court ruled that file sharing networks (also known as peer-to-peer or P2P networks) can be held liable when their users illegally exchange copyrighted material. In its ruling, the Court identified digital watermarking as a technology that can be used by rights holders and filesharing networks to deter piracy and illegal use of copyrighted entertainment content. As the industry leader in digital watermarking, Digimarc and its business partners are making content identification possible on a broad scale with a portfolio of solutions for securing, managing and tracking digital images, audio, video, and printed materials. In fact, digital watermarking technology is already being adopted by movie studios, record labels and television broadcasters as a way to identify, protect and manage the rights to their content while still offering consumers the convenience and portability they have become accustomed to.
Digital Watermarking: An Overview
CASE STUDY
Academy Award Screeners
In a highly publicized federal case, the FBI and the Justice Department brought charges against a man who illegally obtained copies of Oscar-nominated films from a member of the Academy in advance of the 2003 Academy Awards. Because each “screener” copy contained a digital watermark, the authorities were able to trace the chain of custody and shut down the leak. The person who distributed the content pleaded guilty to charges and the Academy member was expelled and subsequently fined $600,000, sending a powerful message to the entire motion picture community and helping to deter screener leaks the following year.
Digital watermarking is the process by which identifying data is woven into media content such as images, movies, music or programming. Imperceptible to the human senses yet easily recognized by special software detectors, a digital watermark gives content a unique identity that remains constant even through recording, manipulation and editing, compression and decompression, encryption, decryption and broadcast — without affecting the quality of the content. Supporting a number of different business models and environments, digital watermarks are easy to apply and difficult to detect without the appropriate technology. As a result, they present a roadblock for those who would pirate digital content. On the other hand, these same characteristics make it easier and less expensive for content owners to place unique identifiers within their digital content as a means to manage and track that content as it’s distributed. Because the digital watermark remains with the content — even as formats change — it presents new opportunities for content owners to explore new digital business models without sacrificing their rights.
The technical and commercial feasibility of digital watermarking has already been proven in all major media types, including video, audio, printed materials and digital photography, with billions of digitally watermarked objects in distribution and hundreds of millions of readers in place to detect those digital watermarks. A number of prominent corporations have invested in digital watermarking technology, including Philips Consumer Electronics, Thomson and Nielsen Media Research. And successful commercial deployment of digital watermarking by the music, movie, broadcasting and advertising industries, including companies such as NBC Universal, Disney, ABC, Warner Music and SonyBMG, is already helping to reduce piracy and improve the ability to identify, track and manage digital media.
How Digital Watermarking Works
A digital watermark is digital data embedded in copyrighted movies, songs and other digital content. Special software embeds these “invisible” messages by making subtle changes to the data of the original digital content, allowing it to be identified throughout the distribution channel and linked to the appropriate usage rights. Devices or applications that play or access that content can then “read” the embedded data when enabled with special reader software. This allows them to identify the content and provide an appropriate response, such as ensuring that the content is being properly used and paid for.
Digital watermarking enables content identification applications for print, movies, music, and broadcast programming.
The Benefits of Digital Watermarking
> > > > Asset Information Identifies the asset and the version of that asset Copyright Communication Identifies the content owner and copyrights Copy Protection Controls copying or playback of content Monitoring Tracks and monitors content in broadcast and Internet distribution
Classification/Filtering > Classifies content so it is used appropriately; filters inappropriate content
“Further, copyright holders may develop new technological devices that will help curb unlawful infringement. Some new technology, called digital watermarking, and digital fingerprint[ing], can encode within the file information about the author and the copyright scope and date, which fingerprints can help to expose infringers.” Justice Breyer, US Supreme Court From his concurring opinion on the Grokster case
Digital Watermark
Digital watermark adds unique identity to content.
Print
> >
Authentication/Integrity Verifies that content is genuine, from an authorized source, and has not been altered Forensic Tracking Identifies where content left its authorized environment or distribution path
Original Content Digital Watermark Embedded Digitally Watermarked Content
Digital Music or Movies
Remote Triggering > Causes automatic action during distribution > Digital Rights Management Identifies the content and associated rights or enables rights re-association
Broadcast Programming
Applications for Digital Watermarking
Digital watermarks have been broadly and successfully deployed in billions of media objects across a number of highly useful applications. The following are some of the most prevalent real world and trial applications.
Broadcast Monitoring: Broadcast monitoring allows interested parties to know
where, when and how certain pieces of content are being aired. Every day, thousands of programs and advertisements run in thousands of markets around the world. With highly regionalized cable, satellite and terrestrial delivery, advertisers need to know that the ads they’re paying for are actually being broadcast. Networks need to know where their programming is running. Advertisers such as Coca Cola and Pepsi, and networks such as ABC Television Network, NBC News Channel, BBC and Reuters Television, rely on broadcast monitoring services to routinely look for watermarks in programming on hundreds of channels worldwide. This monitoring is offered by companies such as Teletrax, Verance, and AudioAudit (recently acquired by Nielsen Media Research). In fact, Teletrax broadcast monitoring solutions cover more than 800 television stations and cable channels in the U.S. alone, accounting for more than 85% of all television households. Broadcast monitoring using digital watermarking allows networks to evaluate the reach of their programming, and advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.
CASE STUDY
Broadcast Monitoring and NBC NewsChannel
Digital watermarking technology can help content owners track and monitor the electronic distribution of video footage in order to identify unauthorized use, monitor compliance with marketing programs and better manage the delivery of video content to their channel partners. For example, NBC NewsChannel uses digital watermarking to track whether its news packages run on its broadcast affiliates in the United States and around the world, as well as to understand which pieces are generating the most interest at local stations. During the 2004 Summer Olympics, NBC employed digital watermarking technology to electronically track usage of its live and taped news coverage by broadcasters in the United States and Europe. This information helps NBC increase its effectiveness in programming and promotions.
Forensic Tracking: Forensic tracking allows content owners to determine when and where a piece of content
leaves its authorized distribution path. The most common use of forensic tracking is in the entertainment industry, where music and movies are routinely distributed to executives, critics and other media outlets for promotion before they’re released to the public. In recent years, copies of these ‘pre-release’ products have been leaked onto the Internet, copied onto CDs and DVDs, and sold as “bootlegs” well ahead of their commercial releases. This can result in a loss of revenue for the artists, the studios and the music labels.
To combat pre-release piracy, music companies and movie studios embed pre-release content with digital watermarks that are unique to each authorized recipient. This allows the content creators to forensically track the source of the leak and take appropriate action. As a result, recipients of pre-release music and movies have begun to police themselves because they know that leaking these materials will result in certain personal liability. Digimarc business partners like Activated Content are supplying audio watermarking solutions designed to deter piracy of pre-release audio content. Currently, digital watermarking is incorporated in more than 2 million audio tracks from the major record labels to identify and track leaks of promotional pre-release music onto the Internet. Major record labels such as SonyBMG, Universal Music Group, Warner Music, mastering studios, disc duplicators and online business-to-business music distributors are customers of digital watermarking solutions from Digimarc Business partners.
Copy Prevention: Digital watermarks allow companies to control the use of
copyrighted image, audio and video content. A digital watermark travels with the content, persisting through the changes in file format, through encryption and
decryption, and through transformation between digital and analog form. This allows the content owner to specify whether or how often the work can be legally copied or shared without visually or audibly impairing the work. It also allows greater and safer dissemination of copyrighted works while at the same time ensuring appropriate compensation to the owners. Recent reports highlight the fact that utilities now exist to bypass most encryption-based copy protection safeguards for music, except for digital watermarks. That is why audio watermarking, provided by Digimarc business partner Verance Corporation, is an integral component of a successful industry standard playback and record control system for a consortium consisting of Intel, IBM, Matsushita (Panasonic), and Toshiba, known as the 4C Entity. As a result, when copyrighted audio content is illegally copied to a new disc and played on a device built to the new standard, the device will halt playback.
“The Court’s ruling identifies digital watermarking as one of the technological innovations available today that could help the copyright holders and P2P networks reduce copyright infringement. Digimarc and its business partners stand ready to support copyright holders and the P2P industry as they consider the implications of this important ruling.” Bruce Davis, Chairman and CEO, Digimarc
Rights Management: Because digital watermarks can be applied and detected at
CASE STUDY
Warner Music
In recent years, copies of prerelease audio tracks have found their way onto peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks well before their commercial release. This is believed to have caused a decrease in sales for the artists and the music labels. Warner Music Group (WMG) used digital watermarking to forensically mark promotional copies of Faith Hill’s “Cry” CD. These copies were then distributed to industry publications and radio stations around the world to review. Very shortly after distribution, copies of several tracks from the CD showed up on the Internet. WMG was able to detect the forensic watermark on the distributed copies, track the source of the leak and take appropriate action.
virtually every point between distribution and playback, they become invaluable for rights management and re-association. This means that consumers can move their digitally watermarked content through their various playback devices (e.g. personal computers and CD players) and environments without losing their rights to that content and ensuring playability. Rights management with digital watermarking also has the potential to change the landscape of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. For instance, if a P2P network were to incorporate digital watermarking software in its client application, it would help facilitate legal file sharing, and ensure that consumers have appropriate access to legitimate content.
and which are not, it is relatively easy for content to be illegally distributed across these networks. Digital watermarks allow P2P systems to easily identify and distinguish copyrighted from non-copyrighted audio or video files. Digital watermarks can even enhance P2P systems by enabling them to collaborate with record labels and other audio retailers to market legitimate copyrighted songs. This issue was highlighted in the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling against P2P network Grokster. In its opinion, the Court specifically identified digital watermarking as one of the technologies that could be used to deter illegal file sharing. The digital watermarking technology that helps to maintain the integrity of copyrights also empowers consumers to take further and deeper control of digital content. Digital watermarking can be used to sort and search through audio, image and video files. For example, digital images could be embedded with digital watermarks that allow devices to classify or filter them in order to help parents better manage the media intake of their children.
Remote Triggering: Digital watermarking can be used as a trigger—to make
a playback device, like a cell phone or a digital video recorder, perform an automatic action. When images, audio or video files are distributed or received, digital watermarks can signal these devices to trip a download counter or display additional related content and choices to consumers.
E-Commerce: Digital watermarking can be used to further enhance the consumer experience through improved
Filtering/Classification: The popularity of Napster, a free peer-to-peer (P2P) music
swapping service, brought the issue of content management to a crisis point. Because P2P systems have difficulty determining which audio files are copyrighted
electronic- and mobile-commerce applications. Once entertainment content or printed material is identifiable in any format through a digital watermark, consumers have numerous options available to them. For example, when a digitally watermarked song is heard by a consumer with a watermark-aware cell phone, a content ID can be used to download legitimate copies of the artist’s music. The same technology could enable the consumer to get local concert information, read reviews, and even purchase tickets directly through their cell phone. These applications have the potential to give consumers more choices, better access and faster delivery of the products and entertainment they want.
The Case for Digital Watermarking
Digital watermarking balances the need for security with the need for the best possible consumer experience. It is a fundamentally necessary technology that enables the media and entertainment industries to embrace the digital revolution while reducing the threat of widespread piracy. It is a proven technology, having already been successfully deployed in billions of objects, including motion pictures, music, broadcast TV programming, print and digital images. This easily implemented solution allows the entertainment, broadcasting, consumer electronics and information technology industries to fulfill the promise of providing content anytime, anywhere — without sacrificing the security of their inherent rights. At the same time, it allows these industries to meet the high consumer demand for digital entertainment. If you’d like more information about how Digimarc and its partners can help enable new user-friendly models for accessing and using content while helping to manage and protect content with digital watermarking technology, please e-mail us at licensing@digimarc.com.
About Digimarc
Digimarc is the pioneer of digital watermarking technology, providing a persistent digital identity for various media content, as well as enhancing the security of financial documents, identity documents and digital images. Our extensive intellectual property portfolio includes more than 200 issued U.S. patents with more than 4,000 claims, and more than 350 pending patent applications in digital watermarking, personal identification and related technologies. Our business partners are market leaders in their respective businesses. And our products and services enable the production of more than 60 million personal identification documents and driver licenses per year in 32 U.S. states and the District of Columbia and more than 20 countries. Digimarc is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon and has offices in Burlington, Massachusetts; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and the Washington DC area, as well as London and Mexico. For more information about Digimarc, please go to www.digimarc.com.
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