Unfortunately, both ASCAP and BMI were co-opted by the RIAA in the early nineteen twenties. If you look at their websites you will find no mention of artists, but the record companies are prominantly mentioned as receiving 'their fair share.'
In Sci Am last year they were discussing this technology. The limit is flexible TFT hardware and how small it can be made. The proof-of-concept sheet that they were talking about was a sheet of vinyl with a faceplate from a dead notebook to handle the electricals. They had good results as to performance but poor contrast due to power constraints.
The whole idea about watermarking is that each instance of the file has a unique serial number embedded in it. The watermarking agency will have an id for each watermark, as to get the MP3 file, you will have to use a credit card (E-commerce only; no cash allowed.), giving the copyright holder a target to drag into court when they find that watermark blasted all over the Net.
MP4, on the other hand, apparantly uses a one-time decrypt key as part of the copy-protect standard. You get the file for free, but each one-time-use decode key costs, like, $0.50 or so. It would not surprise me in the least if the RIAA companies are spending billions to make this happen.
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunately, both ASCAP and BMI were co-opted by the RIAA in the early nineteen twenties. If you look at their websites you will find no mention of artists, but the record companies are prominantly mentioned as receiving 'their fair share.'
In Sci Am last year they were discussing this technology. The limit is flexible TFT hardware and how small it can be made. The proof-of-concept sheet that they were talking about was a sheet of vinyl with a faceplate from a dead notebook to handle the electricals. They had good results as to performance but poor contrast due to power constraints.
The whole idea about watermarking is that each instance of the file has a unique serial number embedded in it. The watermarking agency will have an id for each watermark, as to get the MP3 file, you will have to use a credit card (E-commerce only; no cash allowed.), giving the copyright holder a target to drag into court when they find that watermark blasted all over the Net.
MP4, on the other hand, apparantly uses a one-time decrypt key as part of the copy-protect standard. You get the file for free, but each one-time-use decode key costs, like, $0.50 or so. It would not surprise me in the least if the RIAA companies are spending billions to make this happen.
-C