Digital Copyright Protection: Focus on Some Relevant Solutions

Copyright protection of digital content is considered a relevant problem of the current Internet since content digitalization and high performance interconnection networks have greatly increased the possibilities to reproduce and distribute digital content. Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems try to prevent the inappropriate or illegal use of copyrighted digital content. They are promoted by the major global media players, but they are also perceived as proprietary solutions that give rise to classic problems of privacy and fair use. On the other hand, watermarking protocols have become a possible solution to the problem of copyright protection. They have evolved during the last decade, and interesting proposals have been designed. This paper first presents current trends concerning the most significant solutions to the problem of copyright protection based on DRM systems and then focuses on the most promising approaches in the field of watermarking protocols. In this regard, the examined protocols are discussed in order to individuate which of them can better represent the right trade-off between opposite goals, such as, for example, security and easy of use, so as to prove that it is possible to implement open solutions compatible with the current web context without resorting to proprietary architectures or impairing the protection of copyrighted digital content

A Digital Rights Management System based on Cloud

In the current Internet, digital entertainment contents, such as video or audio files, are easily accessible due to the new multimedia technologies and to broadband network connections. This causes considerable economic loss to global media players since digital contents, once legitimately obtained, can be illegitimately shared through file sharing services on the Internet. Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems have been proposed to support the protection of copyrighted digital contents. Even though such systems have been widely adopted and promoted by global media players, they are based on proprietary mechanisms that usually work only in closed, monolithic environments. In this regard, systems based on watermarking technologies appear more suited to protect digital copyrighted content. This paper describes the implementation scheme of a DRM system able to ensure the copyright protection of digital content according to an innovative buyer-friendly watermarking protocol. The DRM system has been implemented by exploiting a cloud environment in order to improve the overall performance of the system. In particular, cloud behaves as a service infrastructural provider, since the content provider involved in the watermarking protocol uses cloud to speed up the watermark embedding process and to save storage and bandwidth costs needed to store and to deliver protected contents

Data Hiding and Its Applications

Data hiding techniques have been widely used to provide copyright protection, data integrity, covert communication, non-repudiation, and authentication, among other applications. In the context of the increased dissemination and distribution of multimedia content over the internet, data hiding methods, such as digital watermarking and steganography, are becoming increasingly relevant in providing multimedia security. The goal of this book is to focus on the improvement of data hiding algorithms and their different applications (both traditional and emerging), bringing together researchers and practitioners from different research fields, including data hiding, signal processing, cryptography, and information theory, among others

A buyer-seller watermarking protocol for digital secondary market

In the digital right management value chain, digital watermarking technology plays a very important role in digital product’s security, especially on its usage tracking and copyrights infringement authentication. However, watermark procedures can only effectively support copyright protection processes if they are applied as part of an appropriate watermark protocol. In this regard, a number of watermark protocols have been proposed in the literature and have been shown to facilitate the use of digital watermarking technology as copyright protection. One example of such protocols is the anonymous buyer-seller watermarking protocol. Although there are a number of protocols that have been proposed in the literature and provide suitable solutions, they are mainly designed as a watermarking protocol for the first-hand market and are unsuitable for second-hand transactions. As the complexity of online transaction increases, so does the size of the digital second-hand market. In this paper, we present a new buyer-seller watermark protocol that addresses the needs of customer’s rights problem in the digital secondary market. The proposed protocol consists of five sub-protocols that cover the registration process, watermarking process for the first, second and third-hand transactions as well as the identification & arbitration processes. This paper provides analysis that compares the proposed protocols with existing state-of-the-arts and shows that it has met not only all the buyer’s and seller’s requirements in the traditional sense but also accommodates the same requirements in the secondary market

A blockchain based Buyer-seller Watermark Protocol with Trustless Third party

Background: With the development and innovation of digital information technologies and new-generation Internet information platforms, new types of information exchange methods have been spawned. It has broken the restriction of the traditional internet boundary, and integrated all round connections between people and objects. Methods: Based on the above progresses, digital multimedia contents distributed or published much more convenient on the internet than before and most of them without any copyright protection. The dishonest owner can easily copy and distribute the digital multimedia content without reducing any perceptual quality. According to the relative concerns, watermark protocol networks play a very important role on usage tracking and copyrights infringement authentication etc. However, most of the watermark protocols always require a “fully trusted third party”, which has a potential risk to suffer conspiracy attack. Results: Therefore, in this paper, we focus on designing a watermark protocol with trustless third party via blockchain for protecting copyrights of owners that they want to publish or distribute on the internet. The proposed watermark protocol includes three sub-protocols which covers the negotiation process, transaction process and identification processes. Conclusion: In addition, this paper also provides a fully detail analysis that describes the benefits and weaknesses of current solution

Deception Tactics and Counterfeit Deception in Online Environments

With widespread globalization happening at an alarming speed, the manufacturing and copying of goods has become a matter of routine for counterfeiters. The Internet has provided a new advantage for counterfeiters - the opportunity to sell goods without prior consumer inspection. Leveraging this opportunity, deceitful purveyors of imitation goods engage in unethical practices such as selling counterfeit goods presenting them as genuine. We propose that there are two categories of counterfeit deception mechanisms online: product level information and seller level information. In order to successfully deceive prospective buyers, sellers conceal the signals that identify the offering as a fake, and present themselves as legitimate business entities. In this research-in-progress paper, we outline several propositions to guide future research in this area. We are currently conducting an empirical study to test these propositions

Blockchain-enabled authentication platform for the protection of 3D printing intellectual property: a conceptual framework study

This is the final version. Available on open access from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record3D printing (3DP) has enjoyed rapid growth yet has also prompted ethical and social concerns. For example, the ability to print unethical objects and intellectual property (IP) infringement. This paper follows the dual-cycle information system design model and implements a multi-method to propose a blockchain-enabled digital platform solution to protect 3DP digital assets’ IP. It combines the advantages of patented watermarking technology and blockchain technology, including encryption, authentication, and transaction services of 3DP designs according to users’ needs. The platform may help promote the standardised development of the 3DP industry and the international digital assets’ IP protection process.Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)Newton Fun

A vision for global privacy bridges: Technical and legal measures for international data markets

From the early days of the information economy, personal data has been its most valuable asset. Despite data protection laws and an acknowledged right to privacy, trading personal information has become a business equated with "trading oil". Most of this business is done without the knowledge and active informed consent of the people. But as data breaches and abuses are made public through the media, consumers react. They become irritated about companies' data handling practices, lose trust, exercise political pressure and start to protect their privacy with the help of technical tools. As a result, companies' Internet business models that are based on personal data are unsettled. An open conflict is arising between business demands for data and a desire for privacy. As of 2015 no true answer is in sight of how to resolve this conflict. Technologists, economists and regulators are struggling to develop technical solutions and policies that meet businesses' demand for more data while still maintaining privacy. Yet, most of the proposed solutions fail to account for market complexity and provide no pathway to technological and legal implementation. They lack a bigger vision for data use and privacy. To break this vicious cycle, we propose and test such a vision of a personal information market with privacy. We accumulate technical and legal measures that have been proposed by technical and legal scholars over the past two decades. And out of this existing knowledge, we compose something new: a four-space market model for personal data

Special oils for halal and safe cosmetics

Three types of non conventional oils were extracted, analyzed and tested for toxicity. Date palm kernel oil (DPKO), mango kernel oil (MKO) and Ramputan seed oil (RSO). Oil content for tow cultivars of dates Deglect Noor and Moshkan was 9.67% and 7.30%, respectively. The three varieties of mango were found to contain about 10% oil in average. The red yellow types of Ramputan were found to have 11 and 14% oil, respectively. The phenolic compounds in DPKO, MKO and RSO were 0.98, 0.88 and 0.78 mg/ml Gallic acid equivalent, respectively. Oils were analyzed for their fatty acid composition and they are rich in oleic acid C18:1 and showed the presence of (dodecanoic acid) lauric acid C12:0, which reported to appear some antimicrobial activities. All extracted oils, DPKO, MKO and RSO showed no toxic effect using prime shrimp bioassay. Since these oils are stable, melt at skin temperature, have good lubricity and are great source of essential fatty acids; they could be used as highly moisturizing, cleansing and nourishing oils because of high oleic acid content. They are ideal for use in such halal cosmetics such as Science, Engineering and Technology 75 skin care and massage, hair-care, soap and shampoo products