CAPS, some more info on watermarking.
ARIS' digital audio watermarks embed decodable information within audio signals, including audio tracks of audiovisual and multimedia works. And because the ARIS watermarks become part of the audio content itself, they are invulnerable to removal or alteration. Among other things, ARIS watermarks can be used to identify program content, program sources, and program recipients. In addition, when utilized in combination with compliant transmission, storage and play-back devices, ARIS watermarks can control the reproduction and usage of entertainment content, from broadcasts and DVDs, video and audio "on-demand" and e-commerce systems, and "streaming" services.
Here is the definition of invulnerable from Websters:
1 : incapable of being wounded, injured, or harmed
2 : immune to or proof against attack : IMPREGNABLE
And more:
The Technology:
Our technology is based on the philosophy which holds that robust and transparent embedded signaling is most successful when performed through the modulation of integral aspects of the host signal, rather than through the introduction of foreign embedded signal components which are loosely related to the original signal content. This philosophy is embodied in our products using the technique of feature modulation, in which the embedded signal is MARRIED to the HOST AUDIO by introducing subtle MODULATIONS into the preexisting fluctuations of selected features of the audio signal over time. Because the modulations introduced through this approach need only introduce slight disturbances - leveraging off of the natural variations of the audio - they can be extremely small and are INSEPERABLE from the natural variations of the audio signal.
SURVIVABILITY:
Through numerous in-house and third-party evaluations, ARIS' watermarks have been shown to survive all distortions which occur during normal usage of the content as well as those which may be applied specifically in an attempt to circumvent watermark protection. The distortions to which ARIS' watermarks are resilient to include the application of lossy data-rate compression, band-limiting, additive noise, spectral equalization, D/A-A/D and sample-rate conversion, AM/FM/TV broadcast, matrix (surround) encoding, non-linear distortion, dynamic-range compression (wideband and multiband), group delay, linear speed change, pitch-invariant time-scaling ("Lexiconning"), wow and flutter, echo, artificial reverberation, and multi-channel down-mixing (e.g. surround-to-stereo, stereo-to-mono).
Now back to your comment about simply removing the watermark and voila' it's free. You would need some type of demodulator that is designed to demodulate and read the watermark. Jon and you have stated that someone will write this program and put it out to everyone.
I don't know but it would seem very logical that the watermark demodulator that will be a part of all SDMI players will be embedded/burned right into a chip in the player. I don't see anyone reverse engineering something like that. And with the watermark becoming an actual part of the music itself, I don't see someone removing it.
This is just the watermarking. Then there is the security. EMI is using Supertracks which is using both EPAC and the Intel Software Integrity System.
Read about that here:
developer.intel.com
Also if the music file is altered it may not even play on an SDMI approved player.
I don't really know why we are discussing all of this as it really doesn't have much affect on EDIG. But it is good to learn about all of the different aspects of the download industry.
Mark |
