Slashdot Mirror
Nielsen To Offer Web Copyright Protection System
J053 writes "The Nielsen company, along with Digimarc, are planning to offer their digital watermarking technology to web content providers. According to Information Week, the system will provide 'a way to quickly discover unauthorized content on sites. To do that, the system would leverage Nielsen's existing watermark technology, which is used on more than 95% of TV programming distributed today. The watermarks are used by the meters installed in people's home to identify the programs they watch.'"
That would be fair if the public actually understood fair use. As slashdot has demonstrated in the past it's understanding is flawed.
The record industry put a lot of work into trying to make watermarking work. The article claims the system is an audio only watermarking system too. If Nielsen really had a system that worked their first customers would of been the RIAA.
By the time they get "watermarking" to work what they'll have is a pattern matching machine that can match tv shows to youtube clips. They are a long ways from doing that though due to the amount of content it would have to work through in a timely manner.
Just to clarify, in my comment above, I didn't mean to suggest that by giving away their work, artists would be showing disdain or hostility to their customers. Just the opposite. I meant to say that it was the record labels, publishers, and mostly the RIAA that are showing the disdain (and yes, outright hostility) to the people that have provided them with comfortable livings for all these years.
If you are an artist just starting out, you should spend your downtime learning all you can about Creative Commons and other alternatives to becoming involved with an industry that hates you and your listeners. You can make money without playing the fool. You're an artist, use some ingenuity in your business dealings as well as in your craft.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Don't like 70% of American households have cable? (or equivalent)
I'd think that over a hundred million samples would be quite a bit better than a few thousand, no matter how well-chosen those few thousand are. As for privacy concerns, I'd specifically choose a cable company that tracked what shows I watch, since it'd mean that shows I like wouldn't get canceled because by some fluke, a few thousand people chosen for their willingness to keep a diary of their viewing habits, happened to not like it (or maybe just didn't notice it was available). They'd get canceled because I really am the only one actually watching.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
..and don't be bringin' your "freeloading" bullshit around here either, laddy-boy. Are you suggesting that web-sites are hosting unauthorized content, but keeping the adverts in the content, so that makes it alright because that represents payment as far as you're concerned? The adverts are not shown, they are the first things to come out. So no-one is obliged to watch them, and no-one is either paying for the content, or buying from the advertisers who in part paid for the content. So please, remind us, just exactly is being contributed here that exempts it from the "freeloading" tag? if television networks had their way, any sort of consumer recording device (VCR, DVD recorder, DVR, computer video capture, friggin' tape recorder even!) would be outlawed, being caught with one would ruin you financially for the rest of your life Some Guy Who Doesn't Want To Take Out A 2nd Mortgage To Go See A FSCKING Movie Wow, them there's some mighty wild strawmen you're building. Care to come back and join us in reality? But wait.. . hang on, why would you want to pay anything to see "A FSCKING Movie". They're "total absolute crap", remember?? Just what strange world do you live in that forces you to hand over a 2nd Mortgage to see something you don't want to see??? Or is just everything you're saying a smokescreen thrown up to disguise the unpalatable truth? Maybe you have no positive suggestions because you're happy with things as are. You want to see it but you don't want to pay for it. There's a word for that....