Audio Watermark Web Spider Starts Crawling

DippityDo writes "A new web tool is scanning the net for signs of copyright infringement. Digimarc's patented system searches video and audio files for special watermarks that would indicate they are not to be shared, then reports back to HQ with the results. It sounds kind of creepy, but has a long way to go before it makes a practical difference. 'For the system to work, players at multiple levels would need to get involved. Broadcasters would need to add identifying watermarks to their broadcast, in cooperation with copyright holders, and both parties would need to register their watermarks with the system. Then, in the event that a user capped a broadcast and uploaded it online, the scanner system would eventually find it and report its location online. Yet the system is not designed to hop on P2P networks or private file sharing hubs, but instead crawls public web sites in search of watermarked material.'"

Comments

Re:Corporate IP infringements

[Jaqenn]

Incidentally, I work next to a guy that this happened to. He's a amateur photographer, and a local PR firm grabbed some of his photos off the net and used it to promote some event. They even put his name in the credits, but never actually told him what they were doing. Through lucky coincidence he noticed what they did, and after some mild legal drama settled out of court with them for a few thousand dollars.