Talk:Secure Digital Music Initiative

it seems from the SDMI website that the organization was created in very early 1999, I could find no evidence on the website that it was actually 1998 - but this is probably not important

The above comment was unsigned. This is a new comment. This page says nothing about the relationship between SDMI and DRM. Presumably there is some connection. Kayesque 21:10, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

incorrect information
The information presented is rather biased and is not technically accurate. Watermarking is fundamentally different from cryptography. There is no "hacking", where the detection of a hidden key removes all protection (as is the case with DVD). Watermaking information is embedded in the media in a dimension that humans cannot perceive, while the media remains essentially in plaintext. So long as the temporally diverse watermark that is embedded remains detectable, even once during playback, the watermarking has succeeded. If an adversary detects a watermarking technique, but is unable to exploit it, he has not succeeded. In the more advanced watermarking techniques, attempts to distort the embedded watermark so that is becomes undetectable also render the media content entirely unenjoyable. Who has won there? It is also a fact that only some of the watermarking techniques were detectable. Dr. Felton was only able to detect one technique in the Verance watermarking process, while completely failing to detect the other layers. In any case, he failed to remove the watermark or sufficiently distort it to the point where it was undetectable. It was perhaps a coincidence that after failing to remove the watermark, work was abruptly stopped, claiming fear of litigation under DMCA. And it should be pointed out that the participants of the SDMI challenge were given both the unwatermarked and watermarked copy, an extraordinary amount of information that the end user would not receive. In any event, the most important reason for the SDMI collapse was a conflict between media producers and media equipment vendors. Each side insisted the other should pay for the addition of the watermarking. In the end, neither side did, and the consortium slowly faded away.

Added Tag
Added Unbalanced opinion Tag, for eventual rewrite. Joseph J. Cox 09:20, 4 November 2007 (UTC)