Managing Rights Management

Where's Bob - Silicon Valley

I'll be in Silicon Valley from May 6th until late on Wednesday May 14th for various meeting. The rate of posting should move closer to normal after my return to Boston.

Digimarc Watermarking and Microsoft Fingerprinting Issued Patents

Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Today's Spotlight patents concern the use of watermarking and fingerprinting. Assigned to Digimarc, the first of today's patents concerns transmarking of multimedia signals.  Assigned to Microsoft, the second patent concerns the use of digital fingerprints for message authentication.

Intertrust and Motorola Digital Rights Management Patent Applications

On Thursdays, the USPTO publishes new patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight applications address various aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Intertrust, the first application concerns matching, selecting, narrowcasting, and/or classifying based on rights management. Assigned to Motorola (General Instruments), the second application discloses techniques for distributing digital information including digital rights management information to a plurality of devices. 

Watermarking Patents Issued

On Tuesdays the USPTO publishes newly issued patents. Both of today's Spotlight patents entail the use of watermarking. Assigned to Toshiba, the first patent concerns techniques for digital watermark detection. Assigned to Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd., the second patent concerns techniques for embedding and retrieving watermarked information.

DRM Patent Applications For Audience Measurement and License Renewal

Thursdays the USPTO publishes new patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight applications entail the use of DRM. The first application discloses DRM techniques for audience measurement, no assignee given. The second discloses DRM techniques for license renewal, also no assignee given.

Managing Rights Management Among Top Technology Blogs

Although it's clever marketing for their site, I am nevertheless pleased to have received an 8.3 rating from the editors of Blogged.com. Here is a lightly edited version of their email:

Dear Bob Weber,

Our editors recently reviewed your blog and have given it an 8.3 score out of (10) in the Technology category of Blogged.com.

This is quite an achievement!

http://www.blogged.com/directory/technology

We evaluated your blog based on the following criteria: Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style.

After carefully reviewing each of these criteria, your site was given its 8.3 score.

We’ve also created Blogged.com score badges with your score prominently displayed.  Simply visit your website’s summary page on Blogged.com:

Please accept my congratulations on a blog well-done!!

Sincerely,
Amy Liu

Boeing and Digimarc Watermarking Patents Issued

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight patents entail the use of watermarking. Assigned to Boeing, the first patent concerns a dynamic wavelet feature-based watermark. Assigned to Digimarc, the second patent  concerns digital watermarking with content dependent keys and autocorrelation properties for synchronization

Watermarking Patent Applications

Thursdays the USPTO publishes new patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight applications concern media watermarking. The first discloses techniques for watermarking media data, no assignee given. The second discloses techniques for watermarking motion pictures, apparently assigned to Thompson.

Copyright Protection and Recorded Content Distirbution Patents

{Haven't been blogging much because of the press of client work including travel. Will be on lighter publishing schedule until mid-May when things may calm down a bit.}

On Tuesdays the USPTO publishes newly issued patents. Both of today's Spotlight patents address various aspects of copyright identification and protection. Assigned to Audible Magic, the first patent concerns techniques for detecting and protecting against unauthorized transmission of digital works. Assigned to Immediatek, Inc., the second patent concerns a system for the distribution of recorded content.

Barcode Ticket Security - DRM Not

Masabi's Ben Whitaker wrote a most interesting article on Barcode security. Even those readers who don't usually care about such things should have a look; lots of interesting ideas there. Whitaker addresses security and DRM:

Anti-copying using DRM (Digital Rights Management)
However you deliver a barcode, it has to be presented in a scannable format, which means that an adversary can always scan the ticket, and if they want to, change some details on the barcode and create multiple copies without DRM. People that have barcode delivery systems that use or rely on "forward lock" or DRM to prevent the barcode image being sent from one person to another are being blind to the availability of barcode scanners to beat all of their software. Also consider that OMA DRM for forward locking images downloaded to phones places laughably little protection against an assailant armed with such exotic tools as a web-browser and a text editor.

FTC on DRM-Disclose, Label It, OR Else

Ars Technica reports on a recent Federal Trade Commission report issued nearly 18 months after the conference that spawned it. Regarding DRM, the report says in part:

As new, proprietary technologies are introduced, consumers will be faced with noninteroperable products. Despite consumers’ general preference for interoperability, which provides the greatest flexibility and range of use for products they buy, such a goal may be elusive in a competitive marketplace where businesses seek to provide unique and innovative products. The challenge for the FTC, then, is not to ensure that products are interoperable, but rather to ensure that consumers are provided sufficient information prior to purchase so that they understand any inherent limitations on the use of the products they buy.

Watermarking and Fingerprinting Patent Applications

Thursdays the USPTO publishes new patent applications. Today's Spotlight applications address various aspects of watermarking and fingerprinting. Assigned to Nippon Telephone and Telegraph, the first application discloses a digital watermark padding method, digital watermark padding device, digital watermark detecting method, digital watermark detecting device, and program. The second application discloses techniques for interactive TV data track synchronization in part using fingerprinting, no assignee given.

Adobe DRM and LG Electornic Book Patents

Today's Spotlight issued patents concern various aspects of digital rights management.  Assigned to Adobe, the first patent concerns nestable skeleton decryption keys for digital rights management. Assigned to LG Electronics, the second patent concerns techniques for providing digital electronic books.

Joe Winograd (Verance) on Public Assessments Of Watermark Survivability

Back in February I wondered about public tests of watermarking survivability besides the well-known SDMI related tests. Joe Winograd, CTO of watermarking company Verance, emailed the following information:

There have been 5 competitive, independent audio watermark technology evaluations held to date -- a list is provided at the bottom of the "Technology" page on Verance's web site here.

 

Of these, only one (JASRAC/CISAC/BIEM's STEP 2001) has distributed the results publicly.  An archived announcement of the results is here. The three part report is available here, here, and here.

Of the others, IFPI's MUSE results were distributed only to the member companies, 4C's results were provided only to SDMI, and SDMI's reports were distributed to the 200 member companies.  

 

There have been 2 competitive, independent, commercial, video watermark evaluations held that I am aware of (both under the auspices of the DVD CCA) but we did not participate and I don't think any results were publicly released.

Best, - Joe

Nate Lawson on Designing and Breaking DRM

Nate Lawson is a co-creator of the BD+ security layer on Blu-ray. He gave a talk at the recent RSA conference.that covers techniques for attacking DRM. His slides are posted here and are worth reviewing. Lawson writes:

Of course, people in glass houses should not throw rocks. As someone who had a part in developing BD+, I am biased toward thinking a different approach than mere broadcast encryption [e.g. AACS] is the only thing that has a chance of success in this rough world. The first BD+ discs were cracked in mid-March, and it remains to be seen how effective future updates will be. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on any details here. We’ll just have to watch and see how things work out the rest of this year.

2008 will prove whether a widely deployed scheme based on software protection is ultimately better or equivalent to the AACS approach. I have a high degree of confidence it will survive in the long run....

Watermarking Related Patent Applications

Thursdays the USPTO publishes new patent applications. Both of todays Spotlight applications address various aspects of watermarking digital media. Assigned to the Electronics And Telecommunications Research Institute (KR), the first application discloses techniques for
selecting test stimuli for use in evaluating performance of video watermarking methods.  Assigned to Texas Instruments, the second application discloses techniques for watermarking digital media.

NEC Watermarking and Sony Copyright Protection Issued Patents

Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Today's Spotlight patents concern the use of watermarking and ways to protect copyrighted digital information. Assigned to NEC, the first of today's patents concerns techniques for electronic watermark detection. Assigned to Sony, the second Spotlight patent addresses the use of sampling in music recording and editing.

Watermarking and Fingerprinting Patent Applications

Thursdays the USPTO publishes patent applications.Today's Spotlight applications address various techniques for using watermarking and fingerprinting. Assigned to Digimarc, the first application discloses techniques for using digital watermarks as a gateway and control mechanism. The second application discloses the use of watermarking and fingerprinting for digital data distribution detection, deterrence and disablement, no assignee given.

Warner Music Hires Jim Griffin To Herd Music Industry "Cats"

Sam Gustin reports on Conde Naste's Portfolio.com site that Warner Music's head honcho Edgar Bronfman, Jr. has hired noted music industry exec Jim Griffin, formerly Geffen Music's digital chief, to lead Warner's drive to fix the music industry's business model. Griffin will reportedly focus on getting the ISPs to add an amount to their subscriber fees that would underwrite access to all music tracks. An organization would be created to return fees to labels and artists. Gustin says that Griffin has a three year contract.

Maybe.

It will be interesting to see whether all the interested parties are willing to participate and on what terms. The major and lessor known artists, major and independent labels, royalty collecting societies (such as ASCAP, BMI, and CISAC), concert promoters, venue operators, fan zines and web sites, etc. may  have divergent economic interests. Griffin has a major cat herding effort in front of him.

Digimarc and Hitachi Watermarking Patents

Tuesdays are new patents days at the USPTO and this April Fools is no exception. Both of today's Spotlight issued patents address various aspects of watermarking. Assigned to Digimarc, the first patent addresses a human perceptual model applied to rendering of watermarked signals. Assigned to Hitachi, the second patent addresses digital-watermark-embedding and picture compression.

Digimarc and Sony Watermarking Patent Applications

Thursdays the USPTO publishes new patent applications. Today's Spotlight patent applications concern fingerprinting and watermarking, which continue to be hot topics. Assigned to Digimarc, the first application discloses techniques for using watermarking and fingerprinting as object identfiers with content distribution. Assigned to Sony, the second application discloses techniques for identifying material.

Comcast Capitulates On Net Neutrality

According to this NYTimes article and other sources, Comcast has said that it will move to application neutral network management and disclose publicly its bandwidth management techniques. Tests by the Associated Press and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (among others) showed that Comcast was disrupting P2P traffic with forged packets.

The company initially veiled its traffic-management system in secrecy, saying openness would allow users to circumvent it. But on Thursday, Werner said the company would ''publish'' the new technique and take into account feedback from the Internet community.

Comcast has been hampering the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol, which together with the eDonkey protocol, accounts for about a third of all Internet traffic, according to figures from Arbor Networks. The vast majority of that is illegal sharing of copyright-protected files, but file-sharing is also emerging as a low-cost way of distributing legal content -- in particular, video.

Cinea Copy Protection and Boeing Watermarking Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight patents address various ways of protecting media content. Assigned to Cinea, the first patent addresses techniques for optical content modulation for visual copyright protection. Assigned to Boeing, the second patent addresses watermarks for secure distribution of digital data.

Digimarc Spins Off ID Business

Watermarking vendor Digimarc has announced that it is selling its ID Systems business to L-1 Identity Solutions Inc. The sale leaves Digimarc free to focus its resources on its digital watermarking and licensing business.

“This relationship comes at a particularly opportune time for Digimarc, as we are experiencing an inflection point in adoption and revenue growth for digital watermarking,” said Davis [Bruce Davis, Digimarc Chairman and CEO]. “Our technology is beginning to permeate the full range of media content, from banknotes and secure credentials to television, movies, music, video games, digital images, advertisements, packaging, and industrial goods. This transaction represents a great step forward for our shareholders, employees, and customers. As we combine our ID Systems assets with global leader L-1 to form a more comprehensive offering responsive to our customers’ evolving needs, we are also redoubling our focus on the realization of our founding vision to making digital watermarking a standard feature in all media content. This is a very exciting moment in our history.”

Seems like a wise move.

EXCLUSIVE - Macrovision's Eric Rodli Comments On Slysoft's Claimed Break of BD+

As noted here yesterday, Slysoft claims that it's AnyDVD (HD) 6.4.0.0 software will remove the BD+ security component of Blu-ray HiDef optical discs. When asked for a comment, Eric Rodli, Macrovision's Executive Vice President & General Manager of Entertainment, had this to say via email:

“Macrovision does not comment on specific techniques or procedures that may directly impact the BD+ security technology.  BD+ is a security response system designed to react to security attacks, not prevent them entirely.  As part of this system, updated BD+ security code is continuously developed so that BD+ customers obtain ongoing value from the use of this technology.”

One of the major benefits of BD+ is that it is programmable security. Thus the cat and mouse game between those who apparently encourage piracy and the major studios and their technology partners remains intact.

SlySoft Busts Blu-ray BD+ Security - Again

SlySoft is again claiming that it's AnyDVD (HD) 6.4.0.0 software will remove the BD+ security component of Blu-ray. So far no comment from Sony, Macrovision who acquired the BD+ technology late last year from CRI, or the bdplusllc licensing authority. I've asked Macrovision to comment,  but so far no response.

As I noted back in November, it's entirely possible that the strongest versions of BD+ have not yet been deployed in order to gather information regarding the kinds of attacks that can be successful. This "honey pot" strategy might be a useful defensive tactic against hackers / crackers / pirates.

Ad Blocking Poll: Norton Internet Security

It's not clear whether under copyright law consumers can strip advertising from web pages. One legal theory is that the stripped page is a derivative work. Under copyright law, rightsholders can reserve the right to create derivatives for themselves.

As noted, Symantec has dropped the adblocking feature from the 2008 version of Norton Internet Security. The poll results are in:

The number of voters is small--37--but the sentiment is clear: restore ad blocking.

DirectTV Clamps Down

[I've been off doing a crash project for a client. Catching up today.]

Several sources including this Ars Technica article by Eric Bangeman report that Direct TV has changed the rights management rules regarding the time to view recorded TV shows.

DirecTV DVR owners got some bad news from the satellite TV provider recently when the company announced that it will break some of the existing functionality of the DVRs. Effective April 15, subscribers will only have 24 hours to watch pay-per-view movies recorded to their DVRs. Once the movies are purchased, the clock starts ticking, and after 24 hours, the PPV movie saved to your DVR will become nothing more than an unreadable collection of zeros and ones.

Why the studios should care is beyond me. Another capricious act by content owners and distributors.

Copy Protection For Recording Devices Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight applications address copy protection / rights management for recording devices. Assigned to Sony, the first application discloses a security module in a recording device. The second application discloses copy protection techniques for devices, no assignee given.

Fingerprinting and Watermarking Issued Patents

New patents are issued by the USPTO on Tuesdays. Patents often indicate the kinds of technical issues that companies and individuals are thinking about. Today's Spotlight patents address various aspects of fingerprinting and watermarking. Assigned to Landmark Digital Services, the first of today's patents concerns techniques for recognizing unknown media samples using characteristics of known media samples. Assigned to Fraunhofer, the second patent concerns techniques for embedding a watermark in an audio signal.