limits of watermarking (Re: First Steganographic Image in the Wild)

[Bill Frantz]

At 2:23 AM -0700 10/17/01, Ben Laurie wrote:
>The thing that gets me about all this is that exactly the same argument
>can be made for all existing media - and, although piracy is rife,
>no-one is attempting to mark videotapes or CDs, AFAIK. So why all the
>fuss about more modern digital media? Has no-one noticed all the ripped
>videotapes, CDs and DVDs? Are we really expected to believe the whole
>media reproduction industry is ever going to switch over to producing
>each disc individually, expensively watermarked? So what's the real
>agenda?

Probably to maximize profit.  Look at the DVD encryption.  Encode the media
differently for different markets, thereby allowing you to sell at higher
prices in rich countries while still being able to make a modest profit at
lower prices in poorer countries.

I don't see much use for individually watermarked media.  It is too easy to
collect several copies and find the watermark with a diff operation.

Cheers - Bill


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