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Digimarc pitches digital watermark solution to online copyright woes

28 February 2007 9:01 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 4 comments

Digimarc Corporation has announced its first successful patent application this month, which was first filed in November 1998. According to filings at the US Patent and Trademark Office, Digimarc's "Method for monitoring internet dissemination of image, video and/or audio files" is a monitoring service that scans digital content on the Internet, searching for watermarks to identify material subject to copyright.

When material is identified, it can then contact the registered owner of the content and inform them of the discovery. Digimarc is now promoting the system to fix a major problem with social networking sites like YouTube and MySpace; a very large portion of content uploaded does not belong to the uploader.

Bruce Davis, Digimarc chairman and CEO, said the system could help build "viable business models" in an arena rife with disruptive changes in entertainment distribution and consumption. "Much of the repurposed content on YouTube, for example, contains copyrighted entertainment," Davis said in a statement.

He continued: "If social networking sites implemented software to check each stream, they could identify copyrighted subject matter, create a report, negotiate compensation for the value chain and sell targeted advertising for related goods and services. There is no need to impede consumers. In fact, the specific identification of the content could guide provision of related goods, services and community designed to maximize the consumer�s enjoyment of the entertainment experience."

In order for the system to work however, it would also need the support of copyright holders and would have to be implemented into digital broadcasts. The system is not designed to scour P2P networks, BitTorrent or Usenet.

Source:
Ars Technica

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Discuss this article!
webe123 (Inactive) 28 February 2007 11:12
All these companies are good for is LEECHING! They really do not have anything new to offer,but they want to say they can stop piracy and make a lot of money in the process. Idiots! When wil they finally realize that until you give the masses what they want....which is a decent product with NO DRM and at reasonable prices....that piracy will continue as it always has?? No matter WHAT these idiots say, if youtube and myspace starts to take off everything that is copyrighted, then people will just go someplace else and create a new "youtube" without the restrictions. I think until first run movies as well as games, music and the like have a way of being legally purchased for a decent price, piracy will continue. [ + quote]
georgeluv (Member) 28 February 2007 11:12
so what? all you have to do is run it through TMPGEnc and crop off the watermark or run it through premier and blur out the watermark, problem solved. it doesnt work unless the entire viewing area of the video is covered by the watermark, and in that case you couldnt properly see the video anyway. looks like you going to have to keep honing that technology that identifies it from samples, it will take huge amounts of storage for the samples and be very slow to scan, so it doesnt work that well at the moment. this is a cheap, quick solution that doesnt even work and these dudes probably made millions off it, makes me feel like im on the wrong side of this piracy fight. [ + quote]
craftyzan (Member) 28 February 2007 14:01
if they make the watermark invisable to human eyes but visable to computers...we're screwed. until it's cracked... [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 28 February 2007 17:47
Originally posted by craftyzan: if they make the watermark invisable to human eyes but visable to computers...we're screwed. until it's cracked... or use a non DRM codec it to view it....in any case they fail to understand the problem alitle something called fair use. [ + quote]