Re: Watermarking Re: Dear EFF: Please don't pick the wrong fight

On 2013-10-24 08:30 Mark Watson wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 8:20 AM, Andreas Kuckartz <a.kuckartz@ping.de>wrote:
> > Mark Watson:
> > > In practice, individual watermarking would probably be implemented on
> > > the client side, so it would still require proprietary non-modifiable
> > > software on users' computers.
> > 
> > Why would watermarking have to be implemented on the client side ?!
> 
> It doesn't *have* to be implemented on the client side, but in practice
> that approach is more likely (if watermarking were adopted as a solution at
> all).

if robustness is what the industry wants, then any clientside implementation 
is a non-starter

any clientside implementation means that you
1) send the client the unwatermarked file 
2) ask the client to watermark it  
3) and only then use it

step 2 will always be subverted/avoided sooner or later by someone (and it 
only takes one).
When you try to avoid that reality client-side watermarking runs into all the 
same 'who controls the user machine' issues as DRM, and is hence just as 
unacceptable

> I think it's likely that a client-side approach would be much more feasible
> as a result.
> This is based on assuming that economics would drive the technical
> solution, not something else.

uhuh, more like economic considerations are pushing a technically unsound 
bandaid that has obvious and unavoidable practical issues. 
Any attempts to prevent those practical issues is going to run into all the 
same issues as DRM
-- 
Cheers

Received on Friday, 25 October 2013 08:37:54 UTC