13.5 Conclusions

With the ongoing digitization of data and data streams on the WWW, intellectual property protection is becoming an increasingly important topic and field of study. In this chapter, we overviewed and briefly discussed usage control and digital copyright labeling. Both technological approaches are not complete in the sense that they solve all problems related to intellectual property protection. Consequently, there is room for alternative or complementary technologies and the entire field is open for research and development.

As of this writing, digital copyright labeling techniques and digital watermarks look particularly promising . Though commercial use has begun, there are still some barriers preventing digital copyright labeling techniques and digital watermarks from becoming effective and widespread. The major technical challenge is to develop a foolproof protection system while keeping the copyright labels hidden. Absolute robustness is impossible , but there is much room for improvement. None of the existing systems can claim that their labels will survive all major signal-processing operations and transformations. Like cryptography, this technology will be useful as long as it makes tampering with or removing labels a time-consuming and costly task. Just as DNA tests did in order to be accepted as legal evidence in court , digital copyright labeling techniques must establish their status in the legal system in order to fulfill their mission. As of this writing, the legal status of digital watermarking is still untested, and therefore unresolved . It took more than 20 years for the digital signature to establish itself as common commercial practice and inspire legislative action after the concept was first published, so there may be a long way to go. In fact, the question of how long we have to wait for digital watermarks and fingerprints to be adopted legally and socially remains to be answered [14].