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Has Digital Watermarking Come of Age? (Part 2 of 2)

Summary: If you would like to learn how digital watermarking can protect media (digital or analog) from piracy and create incremental revenues, this interview is for you. (Part 2 of 2). Our guest today is Bruce Davis who is the CEO of Digimarc. His company is a pioneer in the field of digital watermarking and holds a strong patent portfolio. The technology protects media from piracy in both the digital and analog domains. Digital locks alone are useless once the media is rendered into the human analog interface whether it’s via a video display screen, audio speakers, or magazine picture whereas the digital watermark remains effective. In the second part of this two-part interview we conclude with the question-and-answer period following the Digimarc narrator’s PowerPoint presentation. My questions focus in three areas. First is an inquiry into Digimarc’s announcement last November to partner with Nielsen in order to provide digital watermarking applications and services to media companies. Our second line of questioning concentrates on the patent situation. Digimarc is known to be a pioneer, but I wanted to learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of their patent portfolio. The third line of investigation focuses on the potential obstacles to mainstream adoption for the technology. One problem with trying to protect Digital Media files exclusively with digital locks is that the media ultimately must be rendered in an analog form. For example, if I want to watch a video, ultimately the file must be displayed on my computer monitor and the audio played through my PC’s speakers. That means that if I want to copy it, all I have to do is use commonly available screen capture software.