TDW3431 Digital Watermarking Trimester 2, 2014/2015

Tutorial 2
(Lecture 2)

1. What are the important attributes of watermarking over other related techniques?

2. Describe the following watermarking applications using your own words: broadcast monitoring,
owner identification, proof on ownership, transaction tracking, content authentication, copy control.

 Broadcast Monitoring: Identifying when and where works are broadcasted by recognizing
the embedded watermarks.

 Owner Identification: Embedding the identity of a work’s copyright holder as a watermark.

 Proof on Ownership: Using watermarks to provide evidence in ownership disputes.

 Transaction Tracking: Using watermarks to identify people who obtain content legally, but
illegally distribute it.

 Content Authentication: Embedding signature information in content that can be later

checked to verify it has not been tampered with.

 Copy Control: Using watermarks to inform recording equipment what content may not be
recorded.

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TDW3431 Digital Watermarking Trimester 2, 2014/2015

3. Describe the interaction of encryption, record control and playback control according to the figure
shown below.

 Figure above illustrates the interaction of encryption, record control, and playback control in a
world of legal compliant and non-compliant devices.

 A legal, encrypted copy of a work, such as DVD purchased from a video store, can be
played on a compliant player, but not on a non-compliant player, because the non-
compliant player cannot decrypt it.

 The output of the compliant player cannot be recorded on a compliant recorder, because
the recorder would detect the watermark and shut down. However, such output can be
recorded on a non-compliant recorder, resulting in an unencrypted, illegal copy of the
work.

 Illegal copy can be played on a non-compliant player, because it is not encrypted, but it
cannot be played on a compliant player, because the player would detect the watermark and
prohibit playback.

 The customer has the choice between buying a compliant device that can play legal, purchased
content but cannot play pirated content, or a non-compliant device that can play pirated
content but not purchased content. The hope is that most customers will choose a complaint
option.

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TDW3431 Digital Watermarking Trimester 2, 2014/2015

4. Discuss the major limitation of textual copyright notices in owner identification of a work with an
appropriate example.

 The textual copyright notices are easy to be removed from a work when it is copied, even
without any intention of wrongdoing.

 For example, a professor copying pages out of a book might neglect to photocopy the
copyright notice on the title page; an artist using a legally acquired photograph in a
magazine advertisement might crop off the portion of it that includes the copyright notice.

 Thus, a law-abiding citizen who subsequently wishes to use the work may not be able to
determine whether the work is protected by copyright. Even if the work is assumed to be
protected, it may be difficult to find the identity of the creator or person whose permission
must be obtained.

5. Explain the following watermarking terminologies: fidelity, data payload, false positive rate,
robustness, security.

 Fidelity
The fidelity of a watermarking system refers to the perceptual similarity between the original
and watermarked versions of the cover work, at the point at which they are presented to a
consumer.

 Data Payload
Data payload refers to the number of watermark bits within a unit of time, or within a work.
For photograph, the data payload would refer to the number of bits encoded within the image.
For audio, the data payload refers to the number of embedded bits per second that are
transmitted. For video, the data payload may refer to either the number of bits per frame, or
the number of bits per second.

 False Positive Rate

A false positive rate is the detection of a watermark in a work that does not actually contain
one, or the number of false positives in a given number of runs of the watermark detector.

 Robustness
Robustness refers to the ability to detect the watermark after common signal processing
operations, such as spatial filtering, lossy compression, and geometric distortions (rotation,
translation, scaling, and so on).

 Security
The security of a watermark refers to its ability to resist hostile attacks. A hostile attack is any
process intended to thwart the purpose of the watermark.

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TDW3431 Digital Watermarking Trimester 2, 2014/2015

6. Differentiate informed detections from blind detections.

 Informed Detector
A detector that requires access to the original work is referred to as informed detector. This
term can also refer to detectors that require only some information derived from the original
work, rather than the entire work. Informed detector can only be used in those applications
where the original work is available.

 Blind Detector
Conversely, detectors that do not require any information related to the original work are
referred to as blind detectors.

7. Explain the categories of hostile attacks.

8. Discuss the problems if the security of a cryptographic algorithm relies on keeping the algorithm
secret.

9. Give the specifications of key-based cryptographic and watermarking systems.

 The knowledge of the cryptographic and watermarking algorithms should not

compromise the security of the system.

 Security should be based on the keys. If the key is compromised, it is not necessary to
change the entire algorithm; only a new secret key must be selected.

 Keys should be chosen from a large keyspace so that searching over the space of all
possible keys is impractical.