Watermark based digital rights management

The business of content providers is being threatened by technology advances in hardware, software and IP networks resulting in an increasing amount of illegal copies available online as well as offline. Digital rights management standards are being developed for the digital content and digital watermarking, a popular technique for content authentication and forgery prevention is viewed as an enabling technology to protect distributed content from unauthorized reuse, or reuse with inadequate credit. This paper establishes the role of an administrative body, by the name of Central Watermarking Body, in sharing the responsibilities of the content providers, in securing the genuine content and in protecting the rights of the customers by allowing them to judge if the content they have paid for, is genuine. The paper also highlights the objectives, technological details, the economic feasibility, the issues pertaining to the practical implementation and the limitations of the watermark based DRM model.