A Watermarking Protocol Based on Blockchain

Abstract

Digital watermarking can be used to implement mechanisms aimed at protecting the copyright of digital content distributed on the Internet. Such mechanisms support copyright identification and content tracking by enabling content providers to embed perceptually invisible watermarks into the distributed copies of content. They are employed in conjunction with watermarking protocols, which define the schemes of the web transactions by which buyers can securely purchase protected digital content distributed by content providers. In this regard, the “buyer friendly” and “mediated” watermarking protocols can ensure both a correct content protection and an easy participation of buyers in the transactions by which to purchase the distributed content. They represent a valid alternative to the classic “buyer and seller” watermarking protocols documented in the literature. However, their protection schemes could be further improved and simplified. This paper presents a new watermarking protocol able to combine the “buyer friendly” and “mediated” design approach with the blockchain technology. The result is a secure protocol that can support a limited and balanced participation of both buyers and content providers in the purchase transactions of protected digital content. Moreover, the protocol can avoid the direct involvement of trusted third parties in the purchase transactions. This can reduce the actual risk that buyers or sellers can violate the protocol by illicitly interacting with trusted third parties. In fact, such peculiarities make the proposed protocol suited for the current web context.

Data Hiding and Its Applications: Digital Watermarking and Steganography

“…The authors acknowledge the funding obtained from the EIG CONCERT-Japan call to the project Detection of fake newS on SocIal MedIa pLAtfoRms "DISSIMILAR" through grants Acknowledgments: We acknowledge the authors of Refs. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] for their valuable contributions to this special issue.…”

“…Among the research papers, four of them focus on new watermarking applications, including watermarking for 3D models [5], a watermarking scheme robust against screencam attacks [6], a watermarking protocol based on blockchain [7], and a watermarking framework to protect Deep Learning (DL) models [8].…”

“…In Ref. [7], Frattolillo presents a watermarking protocol based on blockchain. "Buyer friendly" and "mediated" watermarking protocols can ensure both correct content protection and the easy participation of buyers in the transactions to purchase multimedia content, offering an alternative to more traditional "buyer and seller" watermarking protocols.…”

Common Gabor Features for Image Watermarking Identification

“…The TV channel log and the brands log are two examples while the second type is a distinctive type that hides the watermark in the multimedia in order to verify purity and possession. Copyright is an example of this [3,4].…”

“…In spatial domain, the technique adds invisible watermark data into pixel values of the host image. These techniques are significantly simpler, more efficient, and faster to implement [3]. Incorporating a watermark in the host image's least significant bits (LSBs) [5] is the simplest spatial domain image watermarking technique.…”