A Content-Protection Scheme for Multi-Layered Reselling Structures

Abstract

Abstract:Since the idea of digital watermarks was proposed, various watermarking schemes have been developed to protect digital contents in electronic transactions. However, most schemes limit themselves to the simplified buyerseiler model that can be applied to only a small number of cases rather than common seenarios in real Iife. In this paper, a more praetieal watermarking scheme is proposed to proteet digital contents in real-world transactions using PKI (Public-Key Infrastructure), The proposed scheme is eonsidered more praetical in the sense that one or more reselling agents may exist between buyers and the original seiler, and the seiler can package the merchandise in advanee without the involvement of buyers. The packaged merehandize can henee be made publiely aceessible (e.g, on top of an open shelf) for the purpose of demonstration and cireulates in the market . The proposed seheme also preserves the anonymity of the buyers while guaranteeing that the distributor of any illegal eopy will be unambiguously identified.