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

Framework for privacy-aware content distribution in peer-to- peer networks with copyright protection

The use of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks for multimedia distribution has spread out globally in recent years. This mass popularity is primarily driven by the efficient distribution of content, also giving rise to piracy and copyright infringement as well as privacy concerns. An end user (buyer) of a P2P content distribution system does not want to reveal his/her identity during a transaction with a content owner (merchant), whereas the merchant does not want the buyer to further redistribute the content illegally. Therefore, there is a strong need for content distribution mechanisms over P2P networks that do not pose security and privacy threats to copyright holders and end users, respectively. However, the current systems being developed to provide copyright and privacy protection to merchants and end users employ cryptographic mechanisms, which incur high computational and communication costs, making these systems impractical for the distribution of big files, such as music albums or movies.El uso de soluciones de igual a igual (peer-to-peer, P2P) para la distribución multimedia se ha extendido mundialmente en los últimos años. La amplia popularidad de este paradigma se debe, principalmente, a la distribución eficiente de los contenidos, pero también da lugar a la piratería, a la violación del copyright y a problemas de privacidad. Un usuario final (comprador) de un sistema de distribución de contenidos P2P no quiere revelar su identidad durante una transacción con un propietario de contenidos (comerciante), mientras que el comerciante no quiere que el comprador pueda redistribuir ilegalmente el contenido más adelante. Por lo tanto, existe una fuerte necesidad de mecanismos de distribución de contenidos por medio de redes P2P que no supongan un riesgo de seguridad y privacidad a los titulares de derechos y los usuarios finales, respectivamente. Sin embargo, los sistemas actuales que se desarrollan con el propósito de proteger el copyright y la privacidad de los comerciantes y los usuarios finales emplean mecanismos de cifrado que implican unas cargas computacionales y de comunicaciones muy elevadas que convierten a estos sistemas en poco prácticos para distribuir archivos de gran tamaño, tales como álbumes de música o películas.L'ús de solucions d'igual a igual (peer-to-peer, P2P) per a la distribució multimèdia s'ha estès mundialment els darrers anys. L'àmplia popularitat d'aquest paradigma es deu, principalment, a la distribució eficient dels continguts, però també dóna lloc a la pirateria, a la violació del copyright i a problemes de privadesa. Un usuari final (comprador) d'un sistema de distribució de continguts P2P no vol revelar la seva identitat durant una transacció amb un propietari de continguts (comerciant), mentre que el comerciant no vol que el comprador pugui redistribuir il·legalment el contingut més endavant. Per tant, hi ha una gran necessitat de mecanismes de distribució de continguts per mitjà de xarxes P2P que no comportin un risc de seguretat i privadesa als titulars de drets i els usuaris finals, respectivament. Tanmateix, els sistemes actuals que es desenvolupen amb el propòsit de protegir el copyright i la privadesa dels comerciants i els usuaris finals fan servir mecanismes d'encriptació que impliquen unes càrregues computacionals i de comunicacions molt elevades que fan aquests sistemes poc pràctics per a distribuir arxius de grans dimensions, com ara àlbums de música o pel·lícules

A framework for cascading payment and content exchange within P2P systems

Advances in computing technology and the proliferation of broadband in the home have opened up the Internet to wider use. People like the idea of easy access to information at their fingertips, via their personal networked devices. This has been established by the increased popularity of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file-sharing networks. P2P is a viable and cost effective model for content distribution. Content producers require modest resources by today's standards to act as distributors of their content and P2P technology can assist in further reducing this cost, thus enabling the development of new business models for content distribution to realise market and user needs. However, many other consequences and challenges are introduced; more notably, the issues of copyright violation, free-riding, the lack of participation incentives and the difficulties associated with the provision of payment services within a decentralised heterogeneous and ad hoc environment. Further issues directly relevant to content exchange also arise such as transaction atomicity, non-repudiation and data persistence. We have developed a framework to address these challenges. The novel Cascading Payment Content Exchange (CasPaCE) framework was designed and developed to incorporate the use of cascading payments to overcome the problem of copyright violation and prevent free-riding in P2P file-sharing networks. By incorporating the use of unique identification, copyright mobility and fair compensation for both producers and distributors in the content distribution value chain, the cascading payments model empowers content producers and enables the creation of new business models. The system allows users to manage their content distribution as well as purchasing activities by mobilising payments and automatically gathering royalties on behalf of the producer. The methodology used to conduct this research involved the use of advances in service-oriented architecture development as well as the use of object-oriented analysis and design techniques. These assisted in the development of an open and flexible framework which facilitates equitable digital content exchange without detracting from the advantages of the P2P domain. A prototype of the CasPaCE framework (developed in Java) demonstrates how peer devices can be connected to form a content exchange environment where both producers and distributors benefit from participating in the system. This prototype was successfully evaluated within the bounds of an E-learning Content Exchange (EIConE) case study, which allows students within a large UK university to exchange digital content for compensation enabling the better use of redundant resources in the university

Privacy Intelligence: A Survey on Image Sharing on Online Social Networks

Image sharing on online social networks (OSNs) has become an indispensable part of daily social activities, but it has also led to an increased risk of privacy invasion. The recent image leaks from popular OSN services and the abuse of personal photos using advanced algorithms (e.g. DeepFake) have prompted the public to rethink individual privacy needs when sharing images on OSNs. However, OSN image sharing itself is relatively complicated, and systems currently in place to manage privacy in practice are labor-intensive yet fail to provide personalized, accurate and flexible privacy protection. As a result, an more intelligent environment for privacy-friendly OSN image sharing is in demand. To fill the gap, we contribute a systematic survey of 'privacy intelligence' solutions that target modern privacy issues related to OSN image sharing. Specifically, we present a high-level analysis framework based on the entire lifecycle of OSN image sharing to address the various privacy issues and solutions facing this interdisciplinary field. The framework is divided into three main stages: local management, online management and social experience. At each stage, we identify typical sharing-related user behaviors, the privacy issues generated by those behaviors, and review representative intelligent solutions. The resulting analysis describes an intelligent privacy-enhancing chain for closed-loop privacy management. We also discuss the challenges and future directions existing at each stage, as well as in publicly available datasets.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures. Under revie

DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT AND CANADIAN PRIVACY: ALTERNATIVES FOR DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION IN CANADA

Canada has signed, but not ratified, either the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty (WCT) or the World Intellectual Property Organization Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT). This thesis examines the current state of privacy and personal data protection law if Digital Rights Management system technologies were legally implemented today in Canada, in compliance with these treaties. This study emphasises in two jurisdictions: Federal and Ontario. It will be demonstrated that functionalities present in Digital Rights Management, like fingerprinting, watermarking and authentication technologies, violate privacy and personal data protection law. The idea to issue a number of alternatives for implementation of Digital Rights Management in the legal and technological fields that could enhance privacy and personal data protection. This thesis concludes that there are alternatives for implementation of Digital Rights Management in Canada that, do not require a direct implementation of the WCT and the WPPT

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

Digital piracy

Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt das Thema Digitale Piraterie von Musik und Filmen im Internet aus einer gesamtheitlichen Sicht. Dies umfasst die soziale, technische, rechtliche als auch ökonomische Perspektive, wobei der Fokus auf letztere liegt. Die Gründe für das unrechtmäßige Herunterladen von urheberrechtlich geschützten Inhalten und die Etablierung dieses Verhaltens als ein weltweit verbreitetes Massenphänomen bildet den Schwerpunkt des Kapitels, das die soziale Perspektive dieser Thematik behandelt. Die technische Perspektive liefert nicht nur einen Einblick in DRM Systemen (Systeme zur digitalen Rechteverwaltung) sondern erörtert zudem Systeme, mit deren Hilfe Piraterie überhaupt betrieben wird. Jede Auseinandersetzung mit einer Thematik die über Recht und Unrecht Aussagen trifft benötigt als Rahmen eine Erörterung der hierfür zugrundeliegenden Gesetze. Diese wird im Kapitel "Rechtliche Perspektive" abgehandelt. Im Hauptteil der Arbeit wird zunächst die gegenwärtige Struktur und Vorgehensweise der Musik und Filmindustrie erörtert. Danach wird ein Rahmenkonzept für zukünftige, an die technologischen Fortschritte und Wünsche der modernen Kunden angepasste Geschäftsmodelle geschaffen. Aus diesem Konzept heraus werden insgesamt sieben Geschäftsmodelle präsentiert. Auf die ersten drei Modelle wird hierbei der nähere Fokus gelegt, da sie den gesamten Markt betreffen. Die restlichen vier Modelle sind als Nischenprodukte angedacht, die für einen bestimmten Teil des Marktes interessant sein werden. Abschließend folgen ein Fazit und eine allgemeine Empfehlung an die Musik und Filmindustrie.This master thesis deals with the issue of digital piracy of music and film in the internet from a broad perspective. This includes the social, technical, legal and economic perspective with a focus on the latter. The emphasis of the chapter dealing with social issue lies on the reasons for illegitimate download of copyrighted material and the establishment of this behaviour as a worldwide phenomenon. The technical perspective not only delivers an insight into DRM (digital rights management) systems, but also looks into systems which are used to pirate in the first place. When dealing with a topic about rightful and unlawful behaviour then it is inevitable to look into laws and policies regulating these issues. This will be done in the chapter dealing with the legal perspective. The main focus of this work lies with the economic perspective. This chapter will begin with an analysis of the current structure and practise of the music and the film industry. Later on a framework will be created to derive innovative business models more fitting to the technological developments of recent times and the requirements of modern customers. Out of seven business models presented, the first three will be looked up in detail since they are meant to be adapted to the whole market, whereas the other four models suit only certain segments of the market. Finally the thesis finishes with a conclusion and a general recommendation for the music and film industry

Acetylcholine esterase as a possible marker for the detection of halal way of slaughtering

Introduction: Different methods of slaughtering are being practiced because of differences in religious guidelines and environmental issues (use of electricity) or convenience of handling etc. Variation in methods of slaughtering results in different conditions namely, release of varying amount of blood and different degree of movement of its body parts prior to death. These issues are related to the release of neurotransmitter (NT) at the neuro-muscular junction (NMJ) eventually is subject to be released from the body through the blood flow. Experimental design: Muscle samples from chicken in small pieces were collected immediately after slaughtering. Slaughtering was carried out using sharp knife. Two different conditions pertaining to the Islamic guidelines of slaughtering were investigated. such as whether the neck was severed (S+) or not (S-) from the body during slaughtering and whether the animal just after slaughtering was released (R+) or not (R-). The level of acetylecholine esterase mRNA involved in the degradation of acetylecholine, a NT at NMJ was investigated by RT-PCR. Results: The level of acetylecholine esterase mRNA was not detected in the sample obtained from the chicken slaughtered following Islamic guidelines i.e., neck should not be severed and body should be released just after the slaughtering (R+S-). Conclusions: Level of acetylcholine or acetylcholine esterase can be used as a biomarker to identify if the slaughtering is performed following Islamic guidelines

Calophyllum canum : antibacterial and anticancer plant

Human have used plants as a source of medicine throughout the world since time immemorial. Today there are at least 120 distinct chemical substances derived from plants that are considered as important drugs currently in use in one or more countries in the world. In particular, 60% drugs currently in clinical use for treatment of cancer were found to be of natural origin. Calophyllum canum is a large tree which grows in South East Asia and which is popular for its timber. This plant belongs to the family Guttiferae; a family that boasts species which are rich in bioactive phytochemicals. Some species are believed to having medicinal values and are used against several diseases including anti-inflammatory, anti infectious, astringent and antipyretic. We have successfully isolated two compounds from the methanol extract of Calophyllum canum stembarks that active inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 29213 and ATCC 25923). The cytotoxic study on the extracts revealed that the n-hexane extract had the strongest antiproliferation activity, followed by the methanol extract. n-hexane strongly inhibited the growth of TE1 and MCF7 cell lines. IC50 for n-hexane and methanol extract activity on the A549 cell line was found to be 27.96 μg/mL and 78.9 μg/mL respectively.The compounds (CE0 - CE5) isolated from ethyl acetate extract of C. canum are active to inhibit cell proliferation of human cervix adenocarcinoma cells

The challenge of emergence of virtual property to the traditional legal theory and the corresponding solutions

The emergence and popularity of virtual property has challenged traditional legal theory, especially property and intellectual property theory. Due to the predisposition for a desire of ownership, and the desire for security and certainty in investment, virtual property users should acquire new specific legal protection for their virtual property. This thesis argues that it is needed to establish an independent virtual property theory which could clarify the legal status of virtual property, the types of virtual property right and the allocation of ownership of virtual property in the virtual world. The majority of the current virtual property theories tend to confuse different types of code and content in virtual worlds, equating the underlying software (the building blocks of virtual worlds) and the user generated content (virtual assets). In this sense, this thesis proposes to construct a notion of virtual property through layer theory. The layer theory divides virtual property into three layers, namely infrastructure layer (1), abstraction layer (2) and content layer (3), based on distinguishing between codes which constitute a platform of the virtual world and codes which consist of the user generated content. The infrastructure layer (1) contains the internet service provides’ ISPs’ codes which constitute the platform of the virtual world. This level of virtual property could be considered as the fundamental basis of the operation of the virtual world. At the abstraction layer (2) sits the unique computer code which comprise of the unique items which designed by ISPs but have not transmitted to users in the virtual world. The content layer (3) are the virtual items which are closely relevant to specific individual due to their personal investment and arrangements. Virtual items that sit at the infrastructure layer (1) and abstraction layer (2) should be categorised as ISPs’ virtual property and should be protected as computer software or artistic works created by writing program under current copyright framework. The programmers’ employed by the ISPs are the author of both categorises of virtual property and the ISPs are the first owner of both types of virtual property. However once virtual property combines users’ skill, labour, personal information and other types of investment and arrangement, the added part then should be categorised as users’ virtual property and the ownership should be granted to ordinary users. Theoretically, this thesis defines virtual property as a piece of property which relies on the internet environment provided by ISPs and reflects both the legal relationship between users and ISPs and the relationship between users and others. This thesis also divides virtual property into three categories, the virtual property users get from ISPs directly without further reproduction and creation, the virtual property that contains users’ private information, and the virtual property enrich users’ originality and reproduction which even have not reach the requirement of copyright. Compared with the traditional property right model, taking the complex relationships reflected by virtual property, this thesis argues that virtual property rights granted to users should be a twofold virtual property right. The twofold virtual property rights system adopts what I term ‘restrained-exclusive property rights’ or ‘fundamental property rights’ to describe the ‘rights’ users can claim to regulate the relationship and conflict between them and ISPs, meanwhile ‘relative-exclusive property rights’ or ‘external property rights’ are used to describe owners’ property interests to prevent the infringement from other users. The twofold virtual property rights system will help courts to recognise the exclusive aspect of users’ virtual property right, clarify the property interest over users’ private information, and identify the originality in users’ virtual property. From the legislative perspective, this thesis suggests that virtual property should be explicitly stipulated in the current copyright framework in the UK due to the characteristic of the virtual property. As the ‘Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988’ (CDPA) states in s.1 that copyright is a property right. On the other hand, based on the virtual property theory proposed by this thesis, virtual property that sit at the infrastructure layer (1) and abstraction layer (2) should be protected as computer software or artistic works. Therefore, this thesis suggests that users’ virtual property should be regulated by an independent statute entitled ‘The Virtual Property Statute’ which will complement the current CDPA 1988