Re: Another ECMS question

On 06.05.97, Stefan Bechtold <s-bes1[_at_]jfhp01.jura.uni-tuebingen.de> wrote:
>
> Just another ECMS question:
>
> One problem of ECMS is that once a copy of a work has
> been sold and distributed over a network this copy could be used
> to make subsequent copies without any payments.
>
> What are the possibilities to prevent this?
>
> You can use digital watermarks, of course, but that only
> helps to identify the original from which the subsequent
> copies have been made, it doesn't prevent subsequent copies.
> Also encryption doesn't help because once it's decrypted
> you can distribute this copy just as you want; and so on...
>
> What projects/techniques are used to prevent those
> subsequent copies (just like SCMS for DAT consumer tapes, e.g.)?

It is a good question, and I still have not seen very good answers. There are at least onestrategy eing discussed (not proposed):

This could be a new opportunity for collecting societies. When contracting through an ECMS for a work, part of the agreement is a permission for a national collecting society to audit your site. The collecting society could then run audits of selected organisations looking for the watermarked works, retrieving these and automatically check them against the list maintained by right holders for purchased licenses. If unauthorised copies are identified, an invoice could be generated. This suggestion has several drawbacks, one is the obvious technical difficulties, one is the implication for privacy or trade secrets. But it is a suggestion.

Jon Bing

Institutt for rettsinformatikk
Det juridiske fakultet
Universitetet i Oslo

Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law Faculty of Law - University of Oslo

PO Box 6702 St Olavs Plass
N-0376 OSLO - Norway

Phone: +47-22-850101, fax: +47-22-850102 Private fax: +47-22-493190
<jon.bing[_at_]jus.uio.no> Received on Wed May 07 1997 - 15:47:47 GMT