Strategies for Unbridled Data Dissemination: An Emergency Operations Manual

This project is a study of free data dissemination and impediments to it. Drawing upon post-structuralism, Actor Network Theory, Participatory Action Research, and theories of the political stakes of the posthuman by way of Stirnerian egoism and illegalism, the project uses a number of theoretical, technical and legal texts to develop a hacker methodology that emphasizes close analysis and disassembly of existent systems of content control. Specifically, two tiers of content control mechanisms are examined: a legal tier, as exemplified by Intellectual Property Rights in the form of copyright and copyleft licenses, and a technical tier in the form of audio, video and text-based watermarking technologies. A series of demonstrative case studies are conducted to further highlight various means of content distribution restriction. A close reading of a copyright notice is performed in order to examine its internal contradictions. Examples of watermarking employed by academic e-book and journal publishers and film distributors are also examined and counter-forensic techniques for removing such watermarks are developed. The project finds that both legal and technical mechanisms for restricting the flow of content can be countervailed, which in turn leads to the development of different control mechanisms and in turn engenders another wave of evasion procedures. The undertaken methodological approach thus leads to the discovery of on-going mutation and adaptation of in-between states of resistance. Finally, an analysis of various existent filesharing applications is performed, and a new Tor-based BitTorrent tracker is set up to strengthen the anonymization of established filesharing methods. It is found that there exist potential de-anonymization attacks against all analyzed file-sharing tools, with potentially more secure filesharing options also seeing less user adoption

A Counter-Forensic Audit Trail: Disassembling the Case of The Hateful Eight

Forensics is proposed as a means to understand, trace, and recompile data and computational activities. It has a securitocratic dimension and one that is being developed as a means of opening processes, events and systems into a more public state. This article proposes an analysis of forces at play in the circulation of a ‘screener’ of Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and associated files, to suggest that forensic approaches used to control flows of data may be repurposed for dissemination. The article maps a brief history of digital forensics and sets out some of its political entailments, indicating further lines of enquiry regarding the inter-relation of technosocial powers constituted in the interactions between forensics and counter- measures. The article proposes that the posthumanities are partially constituted by a renewed relationship between questions of culture, subjectivity, knowledge and the technical. Some propositions for the technical as grounds for cultural politics are made

Buyer-seller watermarking protocol in digital cinema

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC

Content Control: The Motion Picture Association of America's Patrolling of Internet Piracy in America, 1996-2008

This historical and political economic investigation aims to illustrate the ways in which the Motion Picture Association of America radically revised their methods of patrolling and fighting film piracy from 1996-2008. Overall, entertainment companies discovered the World Wide Web to be a powerful distribution outlet for cultural works, but were suspicious that the Internet was a Wild West frontier requiring regulation. The entertainment industry's guiding belief in regulation and strong protection were prompted by convictions that once the copyright industries lose control, companies quickly submerge like floundering ships. Guided by fears regarding film piracy, the MPAA instituted a sophisticated and seemingly impenetrable "trusted system" to secure its cultural products online by crafting relationships and interlinking the technological, legal, institutional, and rhetorical in order to carefully direct consumer activity according to particular agendas. The system created a scenario in which legislators and courts of law consented to play a supportive role with privately organized arrangements professing to serve the public interest, but the arrangements were not designed for those ends. Additionally, as cultural products became digitized consumers experienced a paradigm shift that challenged the concept of property altogether. In the digital world the Internet gives a consumer access to, rather than ownership of, cultural products in cyberspace. The technology granting consumers, on impulse, access to enormous amounts of music and films has been called, among many things, the "celestial jukebox." Regardless of what the technology is called, behind the eloquent veneer is the case in point of a systematic corrosion of consumer rights that, in the end, results in an unfair exchange between the content producers and consumers. What is the relationship of the MPAA to current piracy practices in America? How will Hollywood's enormous economic investment in content control affect future film distribution, exhibition, and consumer reception? Through historical analysis regarding the MPAA's campaign against film piracy along with interviews from key media industry personnel and the pirate underground, this contemporary illustration depicts how the MPAA secures its content for Internet distribution, and defines and criticizes the legal and technological controls that collide with consumer freedoms

Tatouage du flux compressé MPEG-4 AVC

La présente thèse aborde le sujet de tatouage du flux MPEG-4 AVC sur ses deux volets théoriques et applicatifs en considérant deux domaines applicatifs à savoir la protection du droit d auteur et la vérification de l'intégrité du contenu. Du point de vue théorique, le principal enjeu est de développer un cadre de tatouage unitaire en mesure de servir les deux applications mentionnées ci-dessus. Du point de vue méthodologique, le défi consiste à instancier ce cadre théorique pour servir les applications visées. La première contribution principale consiste à définir un cadre théorique pour le tatouage multi symboles à base de modulation d index de quantification (m-QIM). La règle d insertion QIM a été généralisée du cas binaire au cas multi-symboles et la règle de détection optimale (minimisant la probabilité d erreur à la détection en condition du bruit blanc, additif et gaussien) a été établie. Il est ainsi démontré que la quantité d information insérée peut être augmentée par un facteur de log2m tout en gardant les mêmes contraintes de robustesse et de transparence. Une quantité d information de 150 bits par minutes, soit environ 20 fois plus grande que la limite imposée par la norme DCI est obtenue. La deuxième contribution consiste à spécifier une opération de prétraitement qui permet d éliminer les impactes du phénomène du drift (propagation de la distorsion) dans le flux compressé MPEG-4 AVC. D abord, le problème a été formalisé algébriquement en se basant sur les expressions analytiques des opérations d encodage. Ensuite, le problème a été résolu sous la contrainte de prévention du drift. Une amélioration de la transparence avec des gains de 2 dB en PSNR est obtenueThe present thesis addresses the MPEG-4 AVC stream watermarking and considers two theoretical and applicative challenges, namely ownership protection and content integrity verification.From the theoretical point of view, the thesis main challenge is to develop a unitary watermarking framework (insertion/detection) able to serve the two above mentioned applications in the compressed domain. From the methodological point of view, the challenge is to instantiate this theoretical framework for serving the targeted applications. The thesis first main contribution consists in building the theoretical framework for the multi symbol watermarking based on quantization index modulation (m-QIM). The insertion rule is analytically designed by extending the binary QIM rule. The detection rule is optimized so as to ensure minimal probability of error under additive white Gaussian noise distributed attacks. It is thus demonstrated that the data payload can be increased by a factor of log2m, for prescribed transparency and additive Gaussian noise power. A data payload of 150 bits per minute, i.e. about 20 times larger than the limit imposed by the DCI standard, is obtained. The thesis second main theoretical contribution consists in specifying a preprocessing MPEG-4 AVC shaping operation which can eliminate the intra-frame drift effect. The drift represents the distortion spread in the compressed stream related to the MPEG encoding paradigm. In this respect, the drift distortion propagation problem in MPEG-4 AVC is algebraically expressed and the corresponding equations system is solved under drift-free constraints. The drift-free shaping results in gain in transparency of 2 dB in PSNREVRY-INT (912282302) / SudocSudocFranceF

Méthodes de tatouage robuste pour la protection de l imagerie numerique 3D

La multiplication des contenus stéréoscopique augmente les risques de piratage numérique. La solution technologique par tatouage relève ce défi. En pratique, le défi d une approche de tatouage est d'atteindre l équilibre fonctionnel entre la transparence, la robustesse, la quantité d information insérée et le coût de calcul. Tandis que la capture et l'affichage du contenu 3D ne sont fondées que sur les deux vues gauche/droite, des représentations alternatives, comme les cartes de disparité devrait également être envisagée lors de la transmission/stockage. Une étude spécifique sur le domaine d insertion optimale devient alors nécessaire. Cette thèse aborde les défis mentionnés ci-dessus. Tout d'abord, une nouvelle carte de disparité (3D video-New Three Step Search- 3DV-SNSL) est développée. Les performances des 3DV-NTSS ont été évaluées en termes de qualité visuelle de l'image reconstruite et coût de calcul. En comparaison avec l'état de l'art (NTSS et FS-MPEG) des gains moyens de 2dB en PSNR et 0,1 en SSIM sont obtenus. Le coût de calcul est réduit par un facteur moyen entre 1,3 et 13. Deuxièmement, une étude comparative sur les principales classes héritées des méthodes de tatouage 2D et de leurs domaines d'insertion optimales connexes est effectuée. Quatre méthodes d'insertion appartenant aux familles SS, SI et hybride (Fast-IProtect) sont considérées. Les expériences ont mis en évidence que Fast-IProtect effectué dans la nouvelle carte de disparité (3DV-NTSS) serait suffisamment générique afin de servir une grande variété d'applications. La pertinence statistique des résultats est donnée par les limites de confiance de 95% et leurs erreurs relatives inférieurs er <0.1The explosion in stereoscopic video distribution increases the concerns over its copyright protection. Watermarking can be considered as the most flexible property right protection technology. The watermarking applicative issue is to reach the trade-off between the properties of transparency, robustness, data payload and computational cost. While the capturing and displaying of the 3D content are solely based on the two left/right views, some alternative representations, like the disparity maps should also be considered during transmission/storage. A specific study on the optimal (with respect to the above-mentioned properties) insertion domain is also required. The present thesis tackles the above-mentioned challenges. First, a new disparity map (3D video-New Three Step Search - 3DV-NTSS) is designed. The performances of the 3DV-NTSS were evaluated in terms of visual quality of the reconstructed image and computational cost. When compared with state of the art methods (NTSS and FS-MPEG) average gains of 2dB in PSNR and 0.1 in SSIM are obtained. The computational cost is reduced by average factors between 1.3 and 13. Second, a comparative study on the main classes of 2D inherited watermarking methods and on their related optimal insertion domains is carried out. Four insertion methods are considered; they belong to the SS, SI and hybrid (Fast-IProtect) families. The experiments brought to light that the Fast-IProtect performed in the new disparity map domain (3DV-NTSS) would be generic enough so as to serve a large variety of applications. The statistical relevance of the results is given by the 95% confidence limits and their underlying relative errors lower than er<0.1EVRY-INT (912282302) / SudocSudocFranceF

DRONE DELIVERY OF CBNRECy – DEW WEAPONS Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD)

Drone Delivery of CBNRECy – DEW Weapons: Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD) is our sixth textbook in a series covering the world of UASs and UUVs. Our textbook takes on a whole new purview for UAS / CUAS/ UUV (drones) – how they can be used to deploy Weapons of Mass Destruction and Deception against CBRNE and civilian targets of opportunity. We are concerned with the future use of these inexpensive devices and their availability to maleficent actors. Our work suggests that UASs in air and underwater UUVs will be the future of military and civilian terrorist operations. UAS / UUVs can deliver a huge punch for a low investment and minimize human casualties.https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1046/thumbnail.jp

Copyright Law: An Open Source Casebook

Copyright Law is an open access casebook available for free to students. This edition was published in Spring 2019.https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/oer/1002/thumbnail.jp

9th International Conference on Business, Technology and Innovation 2020

Welcome to IC – UBT 2020 UBT Annual International Conference is the 9th international interdisciplinary peer reviewed conference which publishes works of the scientists as well as practitioners in the area where UBT is active in Education, Research and Development. The UBT aims to implement an integrated strategy to establish itself as an internationally competitive, research-intensive university, committed to the transfer of knowledge and the provision of a world-class education to the most talented students from all background. The main perspective of the conference is to connect the scientists and practitioners from different disciplines in the same place and make them be aware of the recent advancements in different research fields, and provide them with a unique forum to share their experiences. It is also the place to support the new academic staff for doing research and publish their work in international standard level. This conference consists of sub conferences in different fields like: Security Studies Sport, Health and Society Psychology Political Science Pharmaceutical and Natural Sciences Mechatronics, System Engineering and Robotics Medicine and Nursing Modern Music, Digital Production and Management Management, Business and Economics Language and Culture Law Journalism, Media and Communication Information Systems and Security Integrated Design Energy Efficiency Engineering Education and Development Dental Sciences Computer Science and Communication Engineering Civil Engineering, Infrastructure and Environment Architecture and Spatial Planning Agriculture, Food Science and Technology Art and Digital Media This conference is the major scientific event of the UBT. It is organizing annually and always in cooperation with the partner universities from the region and Europe. We have to thank all Authors, partners, sponsors and also the conference organizing team making this event a real international scientific event. Edmond Hajrizi, President of UBTUBT – Higher Education Institutio