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Using Watermarks to Combat Piracy

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the ears-just-need-better-training dept.

TheEvilOverlord writes to tell us PC Advisor is reporting that researchers at the Fraunhofer Integrated Publication and Information Systems Institute have developed a new watermarking system to help track and combat piracy. From the article: "The system lets content providers, such as music studios, embed a watermark in their downloadable MP3 files. Watermark technology makes slight changes to data in sound and image files. For instance, the change could be a higher volume intensity in a tiny part of a song or a brighter colour in a minuscule part of a picture. Even the best-trained human eyes and ears, according to Kip, can't detect the change."

4 of 406 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Stand up to Encoding? by Jordan+Catalano · · Score: 3, Funny

    "How well will this stand up to a lower bitrate/encoding setting?"

    About as well as my ears do, I'm guessing.

  2. This would actually be great by grahamsz · · Score: 4, Funny

    MP3's such a universally accepted format that i'd be able to purchase music online and be able to use it wherever i want - be it in the gym, on my ipod, on the tivo, and mac/pc/linux.

    Watermarked MP3s would be a way that the music industry could say "look, we almost trust you!"

  3. Re:Human? by sabernet · · Score: 5, Funny

    Instant defense: Sony's rootkit allowed a hacker to hijack my PC and steal my files;)

  4. I don't understand.... by mangu · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...how do they mark the water, and how do such marks on the water keep pirate ships from attacking honest merchant ships?