Using Watermarks to Combat Piracy

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."

Re:Stand up to Encoding?

[Jordan Catalano]

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

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

Re:And this fights piracy how?

[Sathias]

Instead of passing around a "normal" mp3 of Metallica, they're now sharing a "watermarked" version that allegedly can't be discerned by mere humans. How does this help?

Well, at least Lars would know who to sue.

Re:Nothing to see/hear

[Anonymous Coward]

Even better, making it possible to bill Joe Sixpack's credit card for every copy of the song he bought and shared out to the Internet that is found in the wild. Then legal proceedings wouldn't even be needed. You could just put in the fine print that you're authorized to share copies of the file as long as you agree to pay for each copy you share out. That'd be... dowright evil. I expect it'll show up in the first version of the business model.

This would actually be great

[grahamsz]

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!"

Nothing to see here

[DoofusOfDeath]

This sTorY is unsUbstantiaTEd. MovE alonG. MOve aLoNG.

Re:Human?

[sabernet]

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

I don't understand....

[mangu]

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

Whoops read the article title wrong..

[vertinox]

I read the article as "Using Watermarks to Combat Privacy."

Although, that would make sense.

Re:Human?

[vertinox]

If somebody thinks you have an illegaly copied file, they can trace back to the original buyer, who spread the file... ...who just so happens to be a single mother of 5 and 80 years old and has never touched a computer in her life.

Oh and she's dead.

Re:Human?

[daspriest]

I don't want to have to sign my name every time I buy a DVD.

Then don't use a credit card to buy one....

Re:Under 18

[midorigin]

I've been in public K12 far the last twelve years and never heard of such a thing. Is that really true? It sounds ridiculous.

I need music in order to function, and I know it: I lost my headphones three days ago and have been suffering from deprivation.