Hidden anti-piracy voice in music aims to discourage P2P/MP3
Posted on 04/03/05 00:00 by Seán Byrne                             
Hidden anti-piracy voice in music aims to discourage P2P/MP3

Originally, copy-protection and DRM measures aimed to make it difficult to extract or convert music into a form that can easily be shared out, but with a major drawback that all it took was one successful rip for it to spread like a virus.  Over a year ago, SunnComm bought Darknoise in an aim to plug the analogue loop hole and prevent audio (re)compression such as conversion to MP3, but so far we have not heard of any discs sold using this system.  Now a pair of invertors from the US Air Force Research Laboratory have worked on a different approach by hiding a 20kb warning message in the music.

As music tends to consist of various random phased harmonics, it is possible to modify the phase shifts to create a pattern for storing information without having any perceivable effect with the music.  However, the inventors aim to have a software decoder built into file sharing software and MP3 players that looks out for this phase shift pattern and replaces the section with the decoded message.  Thus in this case the actual hidden data will be an audible voice recording such as the recording of a boss within the recording industry or record label.  Certainly not something one would like to hear in the middle of their favourite song!

The advantage with this technique is that it will not affect existing playback equipment, however, file sharing networks and MP3 player manufacturers will need to take on this software decoder and the music labels will need to embed the message within their tracks for this technique to work.  pipemanid used our news submit to let us know about the following news:

PARIS (AFP) - A pair of New York inventors believe they can thwart music pirates by secretly burying an anti-piracy warning in a track, which is disinterred if the copyright has been abused.

According to New Scientist reports, the warning -- for instance, a voice from a record company boss, berating the user for piracy -- exploits the fact that the tones of a musical instrument consist of a complex pattern of randomly-phased harmonics.

Inventors Mark Bocko and Zeljko Ignjatovic tweaked a few harmonics to shift out of the pattern and then used those shifts to convey a 20-kilobit speech message.

Their patented idea is to incorporate a software decoder in file-sharing applications which encourage mass copying and are the bane of the music industry today.

The decoder would detect the telltale phase shifts and convert them into the warning message, causing them to boom out through loudspeakers or headphones, the British weekly reports in next Saturday's issue.

For legitimate listeners, though, the digital shifts are so small that there is no difference at all in the perception of the music.

Previous attempts by researchers to bury anti-piracy signals in copyrighted music and films have run into counter-measures by hackers, who filter out the message, and also compatibility problems in players.

A little more info can be found here.

The one major drawback I see with this approach is that consumers will have to upgrade their file sharing application to a new version incorporating this decoder.  Then again, if a major file sharing company does take on this technology, then while some experienced users will refuse to upgrade their software, the majority of novice users will automatically upgrade their software not knowing any better.   Assuming the message gets replaced at the file uploading side, this will make it difficult to distinguish between a good copy and a modified version as one would have to listen to the entire track to see whether it contains this message. 

Even if just a few file sharing networks go ahead with this approach, many users tend to have more than one file sharing network on their PC all using the same shared folder.  As a result, if one downloads a dud from the affected network, then the modified file will end up being shared on the other file sharing networks using that common folder on their PC.

Feel free to discuss and find out more about file sharing and its legal issues on our Music Downloads, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) & Legal Issues Forum.

Source: Yahoo News - Technology

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Reactions
Discuss this article with your fellow community members! We appreciate your valuable input, but please keep the reaction policy in mind and make sure your reaction is constructive.
By Ranmacanada, Friday 04 March 2005 03:55
So now they not only want to stop you from making your backup, but they want to ruin any backups you create. If this is not infringement on fair use, then I have no idea what the hell is. Odds are this will be seen by the RIAA a$$holes and they will incorporate it stealthly into their new crap cd's. At least we know with the direction music is going that no one with a brain will buy anything anymore. After all I can only take so much of all the retreated trash that they play on MTV. Who the hell listens to this crap anymore anyways?
By gmgriot, Friday 04 March 2005 09:11
Am i reading this right The record companies would have to enode it themselves to flood the P2P. or rely on idiot consumers to upload DMR tracks? sounds like they just wasting more $ and possibly even encouraging piracy.
By Seán, Friday 04 March 2005 09:32
SeánIn this case, the music labels would need to embed the hidden message in the music on their CDs for this to work and this also assumes the consumers are using the updated file sharing software using this technology. However, I don't like the idea of aiming to have this embedded in MP3 players. For example, if one rips their own CD protected with this hidden message and plays it back on their MP3 player that supports the software decoder, then the user will get a nasty voice warnings even though they did nothing wrong in this case.
By mickrick, Friday 04 March 2005 10:30
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ! What's next, forcing software to play music backwards so we can hear the "hidden messages". So 1970's.
By CORRSA, Friday 04 March 2005 12:17
WE R SO SUCH IDIOTS dont buy music, dvd's, oranything that brings them money we are at war here they are taking away our RIGHT to make a backup of our purchased product which is pure greed but take away the sales for just a couple of weeks and that will send a message home but we are so robotic now that i think that people are brainwashed into i cant do with out this or that just lambs to the slaughter. united we stand divided we fall (very hard) god i miss the days before television and greed
By gene_simmons, Friday 04 March 2005 13:58
gene_simmons"So 70´s":MOHAHA,yes rip it,convert it 2 mp3 and play it backwards and you´ll heare the musicians go "baaad-baaad,dont cooooopyy,baaaaaad-baaaaaad,dooooont riip,payyyyyy,paaaaaayyyyy!!!" supergrin
By bkf, Friday 04 March 2005 14:16
bkfIs this ever going to stop. A voice patern is much different from a music pattern. Simple enough to filter. This is getting crazy.
By FreqNasty, Friday 04 March 2005 16:35
This would make rap sound a whole lot better..I would actually rather listen to the RIAA then Snoop Dogg droppin it like it's hot. supergrin
By Pellinore, Friday 04 March 2005 16:38
I find this very useless, they clearly state that you need a player that will recongize the speech sample, so even if you do download the bad copy playiing it in non-compliant software you will not hear it. Unless they are able to force all software-hardware makers to put this in, I don't see it working out, but I would not be suprised if they do.
By raiderj, Friday 04 March 2005 20:03
This actually sounds like an interesting idea. It will fail like all other forms of DRM, but it's interesting nonetheless. Still waiting for a website where I can purchase high-quality, DRM-free music....cry
By whaledad, Friday 04 March 2005 21:41
Hmmm... I'm pretty sure that more details will be revealed exactly 4 weeks from today (March 4, 2005). supergrin
By FaSMaN, Friday 04 March 2005 22:41
Looks like they are getting desparet,there is probebly a way around it,if the programers of P2P software make it that a P2P program scans(for known "fakes",or the 20k marker) all file before uploading or putting it onto the P2P network,then the file wont spread,also they talk about using it for new devices,so just like dvd regions there will probebly be devices that doesnt do it (Like allzone Dvdplayers today)
[edited by FaSMaN on 04.03.2005 22:51]
By Lodai, Saturday 05 March 2005 01:50
This sounds very similar to what movie theaters and advertisers were doing to movies and tv shows quite awhile back. Possibly the next step. Subliminal advertising. They would doctor the film and place a single frame of a nice cold drink image and the people watching would get thirsty, go and order a drink from the concession stand. I'm pretty sure this was deemed illegal. On another note, do the Artists get compensated for the destruction of their work, because the track was altered?
By Rimmer66, Saturday 05 March 2005 05:18
They can ALL go to hell ! The record industry and the bloody hypocrites who spend resources on such CRAP ! What will a voice to do stop piracy they can all go to hell and keep shooting themselves in the foot motherfuckers - I am a legit music buyer and the day where I am no longer allowed to make a LEGAL ARCHIVAL backup according to my fucking rights, then I will stop BUYING and start getting them off P2p...... FUCK the music industry. (and the artists for supporting such measures). supergrin
By katastrofe, Saturday 05 March 2005 11:09
Actually they made that one up, see: http://www.snopes.com/business/hidden/popcorn.asp Anyway, assuming people don't already have the bad tracks, what's going to stop them zipping it into an album and sharing that instead?
By gazjon, Saturday 05 March 2005 23:14
Come on guys. Can you actually see mp3 player manufacturers putting this in? As soon as it gets round that their players do this with your mp3 copies from your own cds, people will return them as defective. Plus, who is going to enforce this with none US manufacturers? biggrin
By headquarter84, Sunday 06 March 2005 23:41
headquarter84Frown these A#$@$holes are getting greedy more and more, a day after another.... pukepukepukepuke but well.. let them go to hell.... i know u all Metal Bands, players, heads and fans.... the true metal bands are surely going to disagree to these crap protection things... cuz for some bands... MP3 is a way of spreading their art and music for these who cannot get the RARE pieces... their old albums maybe..... who the hell cares for Fu**in' MTV crap and radioshit... all Rap and pop... even Rap-metal and NU-Metalshit... are going forgotten two months after the realease... only REAL music can stand still.... and with protection... no one will ever hear again of the old Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Megadeth, Manowar, Iron Maiden, and even Metallica... STOP UR SHITTY EXPERIMENTS YOU $ GREEDY A%$#HOLES.... i think that we have some people with enough virtue and admiration for Music to pay for they like.... who the hell cares to buy a Britney Spears album... i don't even care to download it FOR FREE... go protect it... Ash Holes.. H.Q.
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