digital battery a portable system to gather statistical utilization information for digital media...
DESCRIPTION
The Napster Threat Peer to peer sharing systems break all the rules Consumers duplicate artifacts Producers get no revenue Producers cannot measure popularity Artists get no royaltiesTRANSCRIPT
Digital BatteryA Portable System to Gather
Statistical Utilization Information for Digital Media without Compromising Consumer Anonymity
Timothy A. Budd Dept of Computer ScienceOregon State University
Artists, Producers and ConsumersTraditionally, the
relationships between artists, producers and consumers rested on
• rights• royalties• the difficulty of reproduction
The Napster ThreatPeer to peer sharing systems
break all the rules• Consumers duplicate artifacts• Producers get no revenue• Producers cannot measure
popularity• Artists get no royalties
Protection of Intellectual PropertyDebate over Intellectual
property is not newMechanisms such as
copyright or patent always pit the good of society as a whole against a return on investment for an individual
History LessonCan you guess the date for
the following quote?
``There is no author who will consecrate his efforts to the instruction of his century if pirating is made legal’’
More History LessonThe French Enlightenment
thinkers wanted to free intellectual thought from the shackles of commercialism
Napsters often make the same cry
History shows it didn’t work.
Yet More HistoryWhen copy centers started
being popular (1970’s) people found it cheaper to copy a book than to buy it.
Required a change in laws, and several high profile lawsuits to change this behavior.
Even More HistoryOther intellectual property
items have similar recent history:
• Cassette tapes• Movies• Digital Audio Tapes (DAT)• Software
Why Digital Content?Digital content has obvious
advantages• Greater fidelity• No Degradation• Ease of duplication• Infinitely MalleableYet all of these can be
problems
Threatened IndustryAnother quiz. Peer to peer
sharing of digital content represents a threat to which of the following industries?
1. Music2. Video3. Cross stitch Patterns
If Everybody is a criminalWorse, if everybody is
duplicating intellectual property, how does the producer obtain damages?
``What kind of damages could we possibly get from a grandmother?’’
Is there a future?Many pessimists have
claimed the future will parallel eighteenth century France
(I.e., artists will cease creating new content)
I’m more optimistic
How to Monitor contentOther (so far unsuccessful)
attempts to solve this problem focus either on
• Control of Duplication • Control of UseAll tend to fall apart at some
point
A Solution: The Digital BatteryIntuition behind the solution: Consumers don’t like
content that they cannot access or use, but don’t mind if their walkman stops when the batteries run out.
Characteristics of a Digital BatteryA Digital Battery must have the
following characteristics:• Inexpensive• Easy, anonymous to acquire and
use• Limited Lifetime• Essential to the operation• Must allow content provider
access to information on utilization
How to Achieve these GoalsAll these goals can be achieved
using Smart Card technology combined with cryptology
The battery provides a decoding, as well as monitoring and recording utilization.
Battery is exhausted when it can no longer record
What will it Look Like?Will look like a small smart
card, or media card. The face can even be sold as
advertising property.Consumers must be
convinced that it is reasonable, anonymous, and fair.
Public CryptographyPublic Key Cryptography is a
key feature• Content is encoded (by
many producers) using public key
• Content is decoded (within the battery) using private key
How to get utilization statistics?Most innovative feature -- how
to get utilization statistics back to content producers?
Two possibilities• Place Deposit on battery• Create ATM like recharging
stations.
Balancing ActConsumers are increasingly
wary of releasing personal information
How to balance consumer expectation of anonymity and the content providers need for utilization information.
No Exact StatisticsNotice content providers get
large sample statistics, not precise information
Paranoid consumers can refuse to return batteries
Nobody knows who is listening to Nine-inch-nails
Implications of Digital BatteryMoves the revenue stream from
access to utilization of contentPeer to Peer sharing is not a
threat (its an advantage!)Can work in autonomous devicesYields detailed utilization
information, while preserving consumer anonymity
AttacksThe digital battery is
designed to be a bottleneck, and hence obvious target for attack
Defenses are technical, legal, and commercial
Technical DefensesAs processing powers
increases (Moores law) you can put ever more powerful crypto algorithms on board
A single break will not then be permanently catestrophic
Legal DefensesIt will probably still be
necessary to sue people who try to make a profit from the distribution of large ticket items (such as movies)
History shows a few high profile court cases go a long way
Commercial DefensesBest defense is commercial. Napster saga shows us that
consumers do not make moral choices, but economic ones
It simply must be easier and less expensive to do the right thing than to do the wrong thing.
Will it Work?Technical problems are not
the issue. Will consumers accept it? They will if the devices are:
• easy to use• ubiquitous• and cheap.
ConclusionDigital Battery addresses:A way to provide a revenue
stream to content producersA way to deal with the problem
of reproductionA way to generate utilization
infoPreserving User Anonymity