[LAU] Looking for Audio Watermarking Advice & Tools

Niels Mayer nielsmayer at gmail.com
Mon Oct 24 11:45:16 UTC 2011


On Sun, Oct 23, 2011 at 2:50 PM, Gabriel M. Beddingfield
<gabrbedd at gmail.com> wrote:
> It's my understanding that "watermarks" are more than this.  That you can
> add a watermark to a CD and that if it is played on a computer it has a
> phone-home feature so that Big Brother will know that an (un)authorised
> person has been given control of the CD.
>
> I never did research to see if these black helicopters are real or not,

For a limited number of albums, and usage on windows, this may be
true:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal

> However, my brother-in-law in Nashville used to get to listen to
> pre-released albums... but since he wasn't the official reviewer, he needed
> to play the CD's only in audio CD players -- since playing it on a PC would
> get him and his source in Big Trouble.

So just put it in an audio CD player with SPDIF out. (So you can copy
the watermark bit-for-bit :-) )....

To clarify some obvious confusion in previous discussion.:Watermarking
is not DRM.

Watermarking is used to find the source of leaked copies of
copyrighted material, or, potentially, for tracking "viral" material
released into the wild.

For example, watermarking was used to name and shame --
http://ninjatune.net/ie/article/2011/jul/18/ninja-tune-on-leaks --  a
certain journo who got a prerelease copy of albums and shared it...

-- Niels
http://nielsmayer.com


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