Researchers at the Fraunhofer Integrated Publication and Information Systems Institute have successfully tested a software system, based on the group's own digital watermarking technology, for tracking pirated audio files in peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks, said Michael Kip, a spokesman for the institute.
Kip referred to the Fraunhofer approach as an alternative to digital rights management systems, which he said require special players and are prone to hacking.
While watermarking technology isn't new per se, this is the first time it has been used in a system to automatically track pirating in P2P networks, according to Kip.
The system lets content providers, such as music studios, embed a watermark in their downloadable MP3 files. Watermark technology makes slight changes to data in both sound and image files. For instance, 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. Even the best trained human eyes and ears, according to Kip, can't detect the change.
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.
