Digital Watermark Comparison for Unauthorized Content Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
The media industry faces significant challenges in preventing unauthorized sharing and copying of digital content due to the limitations of existing digital rights management (DRM) techniques, which often restrict legitimate user actions and are not robust against tampering.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that compares digital watermarks or account codes embedded in electronic content to detect unauthorized copies, allowing for secure usage without restricting content to a single device and being resistant to tampering attempts, such as faking device serial numbers or clock manipulation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If DRM techniques are used to protect digital content, then content security is improved, but user convenience deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments content protection by embedding unique account codes in different electronic content items. Instead of a single centralized DRM system, each content item carries its own identification marker, allowing distributed verification across multiple devices without requiring centralized control or restricting user actions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses digital watermarks as copyable identifiers embedded in content. These watermarks can be copied along with the content to multiple devices, enabling legitimate backup and multi-device usage while still allowing detection of unauthorized distribution through watermark comparison.
2Loss of information
If digital watermarks are embedded in electronic content, then content identification is improved, but detection capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system establishes a feedback loop where account codes embedded in content are periodically compared across devices. When content is accessed on multiple devices, the system retrieves account codes from content on different devices and compares them, providing feedback that enables detection of unauthorized copying while maintaining imperceptible watermarks.
3Reliability
If account codes are compared across multiple devices, then unauthorized copying detection is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables devices to self-verify content legitimacy by comparing account codes locally. Each device contains the functionality to extract and compare account codes from its content library, performing self-service verification without requiring complex centralized authentication systems or additional hardware security modules.
Data Source
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Figure 3A~3E
AI summary
The information marked on one electronic content is compared to that marked on another electronic content in order to determine if either are unauthorised. There are a number of ways of comparing the information in order to make this determination. One way is to detect if two electronic content accessed by the same device have information associated with different users. Another way is to detect if two electronic content accessed by different devices have information associated with a single user. A further way is to use the time or sequence of access in conjunction with the information. Other ways of determining unauthorised content are disclosed.