TDW3431 Digital Watermarking Trimester 1, 2014/2015

Tutorial 1
(Lecture 1)

1. Differentiate digital watermarking from steganography using appropriate examples.

 Digital watermarking is defined as the practice of imperceptibly altering a work to

embed a message about that work. Imagine that the message on the slave’s head read, “This
slave belongs to Histiaeus.” In that, this message refers to the slave. If someone else claimed
possession of the slave, Histiaeus could shave the slave’s head and prove ownership. In this
scenario, the slave (cover work) is of primary value to Histiaeus, and the message provides
useful information about the cover work.

 Steganography is defined as the practice of undetectably altering a work to embed a

secret message. An oft-cited example of steganography is an ancient story from Herodotus,
who tells of a slave sent by his master, Histiaeus, to the Ionian city of Miletus, with a secret
message tattooed on his scalp. After tattooing, the slave grew his hair back in order to conceal
the message. He then journeyed to Miletus and, upon arriving, shaved his head to reveal the
message. In this scenario, the message is of primary value to Histiaeus, and the slave is simply
the carrier of the message.

2. Use a diagram to describe a simple digital watermarking system.

3. Identify the major purposes of the earliest watermarks.

4. The first line of defense against illegal copying is cryptography. Discuss whether cryptography is
appropriate for protecting copyrighted contents from piracy.

 Cryptography encrypts digital content prior to delivery and a decryption key is provided
only to those who have purchase legitimate copies of the content. The encrypted file can
then be made available via the Internet, but would be useless to a pirate without an appropriate
key.

 Unfortunately, encryption cannot help the seller monitor how a legitimate customer
handles the content after decryption. A pirate can actually purchase the product, use the
decryption key to obtain an unprotected copy of the content, and then proceed to distribute
illegal copies.

 In other words, cryptography can protect content in transit, but once decrypted, the content
has no further protection.

1
TDW3431 Digital Watermarking Trimester 1, 2014/2015

5. Discuss the importance of digital watermarking in this digital age.

 The sudden increase in watermarking interest is most likely due to the increase in concern
over copyright protection of the content.

 The Internet had become user friendly, and it quickly became clear people wanted to
download pictures, music, and videos. The Internet is an excellent distribution system
for digital media because it is inexpensive, eliminates warehousing and stock, and
delivery is almost instantaneous.

 However, the content owners (especially large Hollywood studios and music labels) also see a
high risk of piracy. The risk of piracy is exacerbated by the proliferation of high-capability
digital recording devices. With digital recording devices, songs and movies can be recorded
with little, if any, degradation in quality.

 Using these recording devices and using the Internet for distribution, would-be pirates
can easily record and distribute copyright-protected material without appropriate
compensation being paid to the actually copyright owners. Thus, content owners are
eagerly seeking technologies that promise to protect their rights.