CDR: Re: Watermarking Utopia ...

[Ray Dillinger]

I think I know what the SDMI "challenge" is really trying to 
accomplish.

These people are not trying to seriously test their watermarking 
schemes -- those are broken from the getgo because the players will
be in control of (and owned by) their adversaries, and they know it. 

Moreover, it should be possible to create a program that can render 
any all-instrumental music in a watermark-free form, by simply 
recognizing the instrument (from the watermarked sound) and 
substituting with the same instrument from a recorded library 
of sounds, plus standard filters for modulation and mixing, so 
the existence of a watermarked version is almost irrelevant 
except in cases of vocal music. 

Nor are they trying to impress stockholders with the security of 
their stuff.  There is no competition in the watermarking business 
yet; as far as stockholders are concerned, you are doing it or you 
are not.  Nobody's is "more secure" than anybody else's, hence 
effort spent convincing stockholders that the security is an 
advantage is a waste of time. 

What they are trying to do, I think, is to set up a legal status 
indicating that they "did their homework".  That way, when the 
crack of their published system happens (and it will) they can more 
easily get a favorable judgement from a court and try to legislate 
and sue the crack program out of existence. 

I know that DeCSS had this happen to it even though the MPAA 
didn't really do their homework -- but given what happened with 
DeCSS, I don't think the SDMI group could make a really solid 
case that the crack was totally unexpected in their case - and 
the DeCSS case hinged on expectation.

Security by siccing a herd of lawyers on the incursion may be 
ridiculous from a technical standpoint - but it is effective in 
restricting what a business enterprise can do, as long as that 
business is owned by someone using a True Name who must answer 
to the law. 

				Bear