Microsoft has invented a technology for digital rights management that some experts are saying is unbreakable. It is dubbed “stealthy audio watermarking.” It permanently inserts the content producer’s name within the MP3 and .WAV files – based on similar spread-spectrum technology used by the military. To really work, it would require that devices be designed to refuse to play a file that isn’t properly watermarked, according to a posting on the Wolf’s Den blog.
Should this concept take off, it could put an end to the seemingly unstoppable trend of illegal music swapping. Big that’s a big if.
Julie Bort is the editor of Microsoft Subnet and Network World's Online Community Editor. She also writes the Open Source Subnet blog and is the editor responsible for the Cisco Subnet and Open Source Subnet web sites. If you have an idea for a blog, or a news tip on Microsoft, Cisco or Open Source technologies, contact her at jbort@nww.com, 970-482-6454 or follow Julie on Twitter @Julie188.
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