Re: IMPRIMATUR Website

On 4/06/97, John Enser <jxe[_at_]olswang.co.uk> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > The enjoyable content of the music can be transferred to someone
> > > > else -but the compression will destroy or seriously weaken the
> > > > inaudible tones.

To which >Jeremy G. Byrne <jeremy[_at_]midnight.com.au> replied:
> >
> > Oh please! And how does this player prevent the user simply piping
> > its output into an MPEG3 compression utility and dubbing off a perfect
> > copy for alt.tunez?
> >
> > All of these mechanisms designed to prevent duplication of digital
> > information can and will be circumvented. And, on the Net, it's
> > likely to take about three days...

To all of which Edward Barrow <edward[_at_]plato32.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
> In the ECMS world, there is a broad division between those who favour
> absolute prevention of unauthorised copying - the COPICAT approach -
> which is technically difficult and can compromise usability, and the
> tracing approach (e.g. IMPRIMATUR) using embedded digital watermarks,
> which is on the whole technically easier. Both approaches are valid and
> neither is perfect.

It is true that in IMPRIMATUR, we started looking at encryption-based technology as an offshoot of the CITED project. But, as Edward notes, absolute prevention of copying is technically difficult, and it may even, as Jeremy Byrne says, be pointless. Those are among the reasons why I personally favour the approach of trying to track the content.

The WIPO treaties drawn up last December established among other things the principle that it is illegal to strip out header information (the header could be contained in an embedded watermark, and should contain rights information) - this gives scope for the legal (not technical) framework that can be used against flagrant pirates and abusers. You'll still have to find the miscreants, but as soon as they do anything that is commercially significant, they will be seen.

Tracking is much less intrusive and has even IMHO a better ethical basis than encryption-based padlocks that can be picked by any competent thief.

Chris Zielinski

CHRIS ZIELINSKI
Secretary General, ALCS
74 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1EF, United Kingdom Tel: (0044)-(0)171 255 2034 - Fax: (0044)-(0)171 323 0486 <chris.zielinski[_at_]alcs.co.uk> Received on Mon Jun 09 1997 - 17:04:38 GMT