Dimitris K. Tsolis

Decentralized digital content exchange and copyright protection via P2P networks

This paper presents the use of a novel Peer to Peer (P2P) infrastructure in order to provide rapid broad digital content exchange, digital rights protection and efficient transaction management through watermarking technologies. Copyright owners use digital watermarking techniques so as to encrypt copyright information to the content. This information is represented by multiple watermarking keys used, amongst other reasons, for proof of ownership, unique identification and transaction management. Especially for transaction management the watermarking keys used are constantly changing following the contents route from user to user. The challenges for this research are a) the use of P2P technologies for efficient Digital Rights Management (DRM), b) to apply a robust watermarking algorithm to digital content which successfully embeds and detects multiple keys for each use case and c) to successfully maintain consistent the P2P system when watermarking keys are changing during contents transaction. This paper concludes that DRM and P2P can be quite complementary and not always contradictory.

The Use of Peer-to-Peer Networks in Copyright Protection

As a general and effective protection measure for copyright violations which occur with the use of digital technologies including peer to peer (P2P) networks, copyright owners often use digital watermarking techniques so as to encrypt copyright information to the content or otherwise restrict or even block access to the digital content through the Internet and the P2P infrastructure. This paper claims that DRM and P2P can be quite complementary. Specifically, a P2P infrastructure is presented which allows broad digital content exchange while on the same time supports copyright protection and management through watermarking technologies for digital images.

A Digital Rights Management System and Copyright Protection for Digital Images of the Official Web Portal of the Hellenic Culture

The dissemination of Cultural Heritage involves the risk of copyright infringement and unauthorized use. This paper addresses the issue of the copyright protection and rights management of digital images for a web site related to culture. For this purpose, an innovative watermarking method is integrated into an advanced user-friendly interface that supports a digital rights management strategy. The test platform for this application is “Ulysses”, the Official Portal of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture (HMC). The whole practice indicates that the aforementioned problems are satisfactorily addressed.