Music download store uses watermarks |

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Music download store uses watermarks

17. September 2006, 18:43 Uhradmin

The watermark technology makes slight changes to the data in sound files, such as a higher volume intensity in a tiny part of a song, that are undetectable by even the best-trained ears, according to Fraunhofer researchers. However, if unauthorised copies of a download turn up on, for example, P2P (peer-to-peer) filesharing networks, the watermark allows Akuma to identify the purchaser of a file and take action against them.

“Around 40 percent of the labels we offer are embedded with watermarks,” said Sascha Hottes, a managing director of H2 Media Factory, which launched Akuma. “This is the compromise we’ve reached with labels that are willing to release their titles in the MP3 format and not in Microsoft’s Windows Media Audio format with its DRM technology.”

As part of its service, Akuma monitors songs embedded with a watermark against illegal distribution on P2P services, according to Hottes. “We monitor P2P networks on a random basis,” he said.

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A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network relies primarily on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively low number of servers. P2P networks are typically used for connecting nodes via largely ad hoc connections. Such networks are useful for many purposes. Sharing content files (see file sharing) containing audio, video, data or anything in digital format is very common, and realtime data, such as telephony traffic, is also passed using P2P technology.A pure peer-to-peer network does not have the notion of clients or servers, but only equal peer nodes that simultaneously function as both "clients" and "servers" to the other nodes on the network. This model of network arrangement differs from the client-server model where communication is usually to and from a central server. A typical example for a non peer-to-peer file transfer is an FTP server where the client and server programs are quite distinct, and the clients initiate the download.