A Study on Implementation and Service of Digital Watermark Technology Architecture for Distribution Management
Manabu Hirakawa · InTech eBooks · 2011
IntroductionRecently, fake brand-name products and other problems concerning the manufacture of counterfeit goods, as well as the abundance of pirated music and movies, and the misuse of personal information, have been the subject of extensive news coverage.Numerous problems related to security have also been reported, in addition to the falsification of expiration dates and production location information labels on food products.As can be seen from these examples, consumers' trust, especially in regard to food safety, is at risk of being damaged.Information technology has advanced, and traceability has become technologically possible.However, I believe that a societal system for preventing such problems is lacking, and a fundamental reason for this may be a gap in perspective at the business management level with respect to the low-cost requirements of the market place.In society, individuals managing information are assumed to have good intentions.I believe that this system itself is beginning to fail.These problems are seen in the lower reliability of distribution systems, for example, the falsification of information about freshness dates and product origin.At present, the social system for preventing these problems is mostly defective, despite the technologically availability of traceability by means of information technology.Accordingly, new measures for dealing with these problems are urgently needed.It is important to note that ensuring safe distribution, improving security, and managing cost are not independent of each other, but are actually interconnected.In this research, I analyze these problems in the context of the societal system and propose a solution that uses digital watermarking technology.My focus is on different types of information carriers including multimedia content such as movies and music, distributed manufactured products.At present, the security rules for information carriers are complex and are not uniformly applied to specific objectives and applications.Applying digital watermarking technology to information carriers will allow uniform information to be given to various media regardless of the application and environment; further, mobile services can be provided that do not depend on specific hardware and software.These mobile services be affected neither by structural disparities in applicable systems and codecs, nor by differences of copyright management policy. www.intechopen.comDesigning and Deploying RFID Applications 290 Background of this researchDistribution is what connects the producer with the consumer.Physical products that we can see with our eyes, and those that we cannot, such as data, are both distributed.Images, videos, and audio that can be used on a computer are all forms of digital media.Therefore, recently pressing DVDs and CDs and creating packaging and other types of physical processing have become unnecessary.There are now cases where the data alone can be sent and received thus providing the service.Traditional distribution systems run the risk of increasing production costs due to media creation and packaging, and due to the need to hold unnecessary inventory.On the other hand, digital content services use the infrastructure of the Internet to transmit the digital data directly; therefore, these services have the following advantages: 1) no need to hold unnecessary inventory, 2) reduced distribution time, 3) reduced overhead costs, and 4) the ability to have customers around the world, without borders.Such distribution systems resolve the problems with existing systems, and are still expanding today.Digital content businesses that handle the distribution of images, videos, and audio are able to use the Internet to disclose, transmit, and distribute copyrighted work directly to the consumer.Many Web sites already use this service.On the other hand, there are many illegal Web sites that infringe on copyrights and negatively impact legitimate digital content businesses.Relevant actors in the upstream process where content is created include the producer, the copyright holder, the secondary copyright creator, and the license manager.At this stage copyright comes into play, so we know that it is necessary to add copyright information to the content.Next, looking at the downstream processes of distribution and disclosure, the irrelevant actors include the distributor, the network company, the broadcasting company, e-commerce site managers, and administrators.Other content is distributed for offline use via Internet downloads, magazines, or DVDs and CDs.In these cases it is necessary to add information on the use of the content.There is an urgent need for a framework to be constructed that can take this copyright information and detect the illegal use of content as copyright infringement, and that can legally enforce copyright.To ensure the solid growth of the promising digital content industry, content protection technology is necessary, which will be the used as the mechanism to protect copyright holders and their content.Content protection technology is an all-inclusive concept that involves the prevention and deterrence of unaut hor ized copying of cont ent , a s well as copyright protection technologies.Digital watermarking is an example of an effective content protection technology.Digital watermarking technology development began around 1995, and its full-fledged application began around 1998.Digital watermarking places an imperceptible mark that identifies the copyright holder into the digital content itself.In the event that the content is copied, the watermark can be used as evidence for tracking.Digital watermarking does not prevent unauthorized copying.However, it can be applied broadly, and it is effective in enforcing copyright. ProblemsDigital content businesses that deliver images or music make it possible to release, transmit, and sell copyrighted data directly to users via the Internet.Numerous Web sites already provide this service.On the other hand, there are many illegal Web sites that infringe on copyrights and negatively affect digital content businesses [1].Music, images, and video that can be used on a computer are digital data, so the full service can be provided by simply sending and receiving the data.This eliminates the need for pressing CDs and DVDs, packaging, and other physical processing.This is the concept behind the digital www.intechopen.comA Study on Implementation and Service of Digital Watermark Technology Architecture for Distribution Management 291 content business.Conventional distribution systems have problems of increased production costs due to CD or DVD manufacturing and packaging, and the risk of carrying unnecessary inventory.With these conventional general distribution systems, there is a fear that it is difficult to commercialize content that has a low sales outlook.On the other hand, because digital content services use the Internet as the infrastructure to send digital data, it has developed into a distribution system that resolves the problems of conventional systems as follows. No need to carry unnecessary inventory People around the world can be customers in a " borderless" manner Short distribution time Reduced costs Moreover, with the development of infrastructure, the range of customer categories has expanded from the conventional range.Reaching target customer audiences and diversifying categories has become a recent remarkable trend.As previously noted, the handling of digital content is highly anticipated in the future business scene, but the news is not all good.Because digital data can easily be copied, the user can sell it to a third party without permission, and there is also the possibility that the content will be illegally copied while en route over the Internet.Because there are no markings on the content itself that shows who holds the copyright, who sold it, or who purchased it, it is difficult to determine the route if the content is redistributed.If there is no evidence, then it is impossible for the copyright holder to prove a copyright claim when the content is illegal copied.Because of this, if illegal copies of content are made on a regular basis then the distributor cannot collect income appropriate for the content provided, and the business model will collapse.From the perspective of digital content businesses that use the Internet and construct their business models based on the ability to protect their digital content, the anticipation for success is high [2].On the other hand, they also bear the risk of loss due to illicit copying of their content [3].In recent years there have been major changes in the environment surrounding digital music [4].There have been many reports of illegal MP3 Web sites [5].These Web sites illegally copy music data from commercially available CDs, or from regular broadcasts, and then convert the data into MP3 files.They then publish the MP3 files on Web sites that they run and answer the requests of their users by making the files freely available for download.Commercially available CDs and other distribution media have a legally recognized specific copyright that makes it illegal for users without rights to copy and distribute the content without permission.Because this type of use ignores the legally recognized rights of copyright holders, the Web sites are considered to be illegal MP3 Web sites.The number of Web sites similar to illegal MP3 sites has increased.When digital content is distributed for free, it negatively affects the state of CD distribution, harming its commercial viability.One technology that will form a pillar of the solution is digital watermarking.