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June 29, 2001
JASRAC

Japanese Society for Rights of
Authors, Composers and Publishers


Final selection of technology toward the global spread of digital audio watermarks


The Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (hereunder referred to as JASRAC. Headquarters: Shibuya ward, Tokyo. President: Shigeru Yoshida), with Nomura Research Institute, Inc. (hereunder referred to as NRI. Headquarters: Chiyoda ward, Tokyo. President: Mr. Shozo Hashimoto) commissioned to provide services, together with international associations of copyright management societies, CISAC (Headquarters: Paris. Secretary General: Mr. Eric Baptiste) and BIEM (Headquarters: Paris. Secretary General: Mr. Ronald Mooij), will jointly conduct a project for the final selection of technology toward the global spread of digital audio watermarks, dubbed "STEP 2001".

STEP 2000, executed by copyright holders last year, received muchattention with number of leading companies' participation. In addition, it is highly evaluated as the first international project of technical evaluation of digital audio watermarks which announced its results to the public.STEP 2001 represents the final phase of technical evaluation of digital watermarks.÷ JASRAC and the other copyright management associations intend to promote projects for proving these technologies through actual use together with the companies selected in STEP 2001.




STEP 2001 organization

STEP 2001 is being organized by JASRAC, CISAC, and BIEM. JASRAC will also function as the project leader and, in this capacity, formulate the standards of technology permitting practical utilization as well as select the companies whose technology meets these standards, based on the results of testing. In accordance with the commission from JASRAC, NRI will serve as the project secretariat and also perform the testing.* It should also be noted that STEP 2001 is being supported by copyright management associations in countries around the world.


* The testing will be conducted with the cooperation of the Japan Acoustic Laboratory
(head office: Shibuya ward, Tokyo; President: Mr. Matsumi Suzuki).



Invitation to companies to participate in STEP 2001

STEP 2001 invites the participation of quality digital audio watermark technologies from around the world. The details of participation are displayed here.



STEP 2001 schedule

To be eligible for participation in STEP 2001, proposals must be received no later than 25 July 2001 (all dates in this document are based on Japanese time). Participating companies are to provide the secretariat with the prescribed items required for evaluation by 25 August 2001. The secretariat is scheduled to complete all of the testing required for the evaluation by 25 September 2001. The secretariat will announce the technical standards permitting practical utilization in distribution of copyrighted digital music works as well as the technology (and names of companies) meeting these standards in October 2001.



JASRAC perspectives on digital watermarks

In December 2000, on the occasion of its approval of regulations for handling fees for interactive distribution, the Copyright Council asked JASRAC to encourage user organizations such as digital music distributor to reinforce their technical provisions for protection of copyright. JASRAC had already released a vision for next-generation copyright management in DAWN 2001, which takes the application of digital watermarks as a condition for usage licensing.÷ In response to the aforementioned instruction, JASRAC intends to offer handling fee discounts to user organizations, which is adopting digital watermarks until the technology is in full diffusion and also to promote stronger protection for copyright.

* If you have any questions about STEP 2001, please contact the following parties.


- Mr. Hayashi, Public Relations Department, JASRAC

Tel: +81-3-3481-2164 E-mail: koho@pop02.jasrac.or.jp
- Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. (secretariat)

E-mail: step2001@nri.co.jp  


About digital watermarks

Digital watermark technology is used to embed signals for prevention of copying and identification data for content management into digital content data for music and other such copyrighted audio works. Up until now, control efforts have been dependent on data inserted into content data "headers." However, data inserted into headers have been relatively easy to find and remove or alter, and consequently have been considered inadequate for copyright protection and management in digital music distribution. The embedding of data with digital watermark technology results in partial data replacement over the entire length of content data, and is therefore expected to make removal and alteration more difficult and to erase the related apprehensions. However, digital watermarks have had technology-related drawbacks of their own, including a decline in sound quality accompanying the partial replacement of original data and the risk of their deletion as a result of various music utilization processes. STEP 2001 will be designed to identify digital watermark technologies that resolve such difficulties through the application of standards assuring copyright holders of freedom from utilization problems.


About DAWN 2001

In June 1999, JASRAC announced DAWN 2001, its vision for copyright management in the age of digitization and networking. Besides setting forth JASRAC's perspectives on copyright management to both copyright holders and users, DAWN 2001 proposes the advisable positioning to be accorded to copyright management to the digital music distribution businesses and other businesses involved in digital music distribution. In this context, it presents the concept of usage licensing conditioned on the embedding of digital watermarks into the original recordings along with protection from copying and usage reporting