The entertainment industry wants to control the distribution of digital music and movies by burying inaudible and invisible watermarks in them, as New Scientist has often reported. But now Sony’s research lab has come up with a different strategy (GB 2379295).
Before being sent over the net, the music tracks will be deliberately “scarred” with unpleasant noises. The music is good enough to serve as a teaser, but the din is too distracting for anyone to want to keep the damaged track as part of their collection. The noises follow an encrypted sequence that can only be removed by…
