Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc. - 1 Copyright Protection? What are the technologies which can address copyright management in a world of digital copies?

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc. - 2 What is the Problem? Copyright law developed at a time when making copies required significant capital investment. Now, for digital media, the capital investment required for exact duplication is minimal. With efficient networks, even mass redistribution is trivial.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc. - 3 The existing media companies’ business model is predicated on providing the capital necessary to enable mass distribution of physical media. As those capital needs approach zero, so does one of the barriers to entry in their business.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc. - 4 Because of the potential impact to their near-term bottom lines, the media companies have been reluctant to embrace new distribution models and new payment paradigms. First and foremost, they seek to preserve their current competitive advantages. More Problems…

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc. - 5 Copy Control? This has led to an obsession with creating a technological barrier to digital duplication, or copy control. Recently, this has been expressed as a strong interest in digital watermarking.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc. - 6 What is Watermarking? At its simplest, digital watermarking is steganography: hiding one signal inside of another. The resulting signal is imperceptibly different from the original, yet contains a machine- readable payload.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc. - 7 Watermarking Standards In order for copy control information to be passed by a watermark (or by any method), a standard decoder needs to exist in every device. This requires the formation of a standards body. For audio, the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) fills this role.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc. - 8 SDMI SDMI was formed in December 1998 by the RIAA, and over 200 companies have joined since. At its core is an attempt to choose a standard watermark technology to transmit very basic music usage rules to consumer devices.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc. - 9 SDMI Rules under consideration Copy state (no more copies, copy once, copy freely). Distribution method (open format, secure format) Compression state (has it been compressed since distribution?)

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc The Wish List To transmit these rules, SDMI requested a watermark which was: Inaudible Resistant to manipulation Uncrackable Computationally inexpensive Cheap

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc Did they get it? In a word – no. Specifically, any watermark used for copy control MUST use a universal key for decoding, since every device must read it. And universal keys are universally insecure.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc So what will they do? SDMI will almost certainly choose a watermark anyway, and attempt to get all device and software manufacturers to support it. Then they hope to get consumers to accept it voluntarily, since they can’t technologically force them to obey.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc I’m a developer… If you wish your Mac software to be SDMI Compliant, you will need to pass all plaintext audio through the watermark detector. Expect: 5-15% processor load above playback 50 – 200K additional RAM

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc So what IS watermarking good for? Authentication Audit Trails Open Signaling

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc Watermarking, like ciphering, can be done securely or insecurely. In combination with a symmetric or asymmetric key, a watermark can be resistant to removal and eavesdropping and mathematically difficult to forge.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc The key is the key As with other cryptosystems, in secure watermarking key management is paramount. A watermark is always obscurable after a threshold of signal degradation is passed. Preventing forgery is the most important task.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc The key performs the following tasks: Randomizes the embedding process Provides input to the authentication hash algorithm Stores relevant aspects of the signal.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc Embedding Secure watermark embedding uses randomly selected multiple embedding algorithms with randomly selected parameters. The relation between the original signal and the watermarked signal should be as non-linear as possible.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc Authentication The watermark payload contains the output of a hash generated from: The message itself The binary sequence from the key Important features of the signal

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc Human Interaction For maximum transparency, it is also best to include a human ear or eye in the embedding process. This maximizes the watermark strength while avoiding any possibility of artifacts. The human’s decisions are then also stored in the key.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc What does this get you? A secure watermark is an excellent alternative to a digital signature when the data to be signed is perceptual (audio, images, video). It is: persistent through format conversions more efficient than signature algorithms resistant to allowed manipulations hidden from eavesdroppers

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc The Pitch… Blue Spike is the original provider of secure digital watermarking for all media. We can provide security components for creating authentication and protection of perceptual assets to round out a complete cryptosystem.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc Digital Rights Management? The success or failure of copy control standards and digital rights management systems depends upon consumer acceptance. Consumers will only accept usage restrictions if accompanied by significant improvements in user experience.

Blue Spike © 2001 Blue Spike, Inc Authentication watermarking to enable add-ons for consumer benefits Forensic watermarking to create audit trails Open watermarking to automate signal identification and monitoring The solution for copyright management