Music Protection Based on Digital Watermarking and Encryption

Two fast and robust digital watermarking schemes for compressed music format and MIDI format are put forward, which are suitable for on-line distribution through the Internet. For compressed music, the watermark is embedded in partially uncompressed domain and the embedding scheme is closely related to music content. For MIDI, the watermark is embedded in virtual notes that are generated and randomly hide among the MIDI notes. This paper also presents a method for controlling usage and protecting against copying of digital music contents and their associated players. The digital music contents and their players installed in one computer cannot be used if they are copied to another computer. Even in the same computer, the duplicated digital music contents are not usable. The usage associated to the music content will restrict the running time and times. Also the music can be played and it will be automatically updated after each playing. The digital music cannot be accessible if its permitted usage expires.