Watermaking coming to mp3!!!

[Cheez]

Finally, we may be able to watermark our mp3 files. Don't know if this is good news or bad news for people - definitely not good news for people sharing files. But for us composers/musicians, this is great news. I wonder if the watermark is easily removed if the bit-rate is changed. If bit-rate does not remove the water-mark, we have one great software I'll definitely get to protect my music!!

http://playlistmag.com/news/2006/02/09/fraunhofer/index.php

 

[soft]

they will charge high price for the encoder lah. they wont make the mistake twice.

 

[Cheez]

Hopefully the encoder will be integrated into our audio softwares. Then it will be easer for everybody to use. It will be really wierd if cracked versions of the encoder exist....the biggest irony ever!

 

[DemonOfTheFall]

I don't see this being able to solve the problem. The majority of music is still purchased as CDs - rips of those are not going to be water-marked - and yes, my Lame encoded mp3s are working fine - they can't force everyone to encode with this piece of software.

In fact, if the watermark is something that can be read - I'm certain that it can be removed just as easily - oh well then theyll attempt to invoke the DMCA... why don't they just reduce the price of music .

 

[Cheez]

I think you missed the point. It's targeted at a certain file sharing community - composers who want to share their original music as mp3. I don't think it's targeted at people who converts wav files to mp3 and then share them illegally - they will have to come with some watermarking that's not removed by conversion. I think many musicians/composers are unwilling to put their original music up as downloadable demos (in mp3 format) because of the danger of being misused. Being able to watermark mp3 helps a lot. I'm certainly one of them who is wary of my music appearing somewhere else without my knowledge.

Since "the change could be a higher volume intensity in a tiny part of a song or a brighter color in a minuscule part of a picture" such that "the best trained human eyes and ears can’t detect the change", it may not be easily removed like other forms of watermarking. In this strict sense, it is not really "watermarking" but "soundmarking".

I think this will help the composers/musician community by protecting their original music should they want to allow other people to download. I've been looking for something like this for a long time. But since wav files watermaking tends to be removed when converted into mp3, I'm hesitant to use those. I only hope this mp3 watermarking is not attenuated when one converts it into a different bit-rate.

 

[Cheez]

Correction - according to the article, it also seems to target more than just composers and music writers but file sharing in general.

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"The digital media watermark used in the Fraunhofer system also contains a “hash value,” which creates a link between the content provider and registered purchaser. “The hash value is like a fingerprint; it contains unique information about the user,” Kip said. “The software that we’ve developed can automatically search for fingerprints.”

The Fraunhofer approach differs from others in that it doesn’t monitor the individuals who illegally download music but rather scans for content that has been illegally uploaded.

“If, for instance, you purchase and download a CD, burn a copy and give it to a friend and that person puts it on a file sharing network, our system will trace that music back to you and, depending on the legal system of the country you’re in, you could be [hit] with an expensive fine,” Kip said. “This could certainly help deter online music piracy.”

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