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June 15, 2000
JASRAC
Japanese Society for Rights of
Authors, Composers and Publishers
Nomura Research Institute, Inc.
KEY TO SUCCESSFUL REALIZATION OF DIGITAL MUSIC DISTRIBUTION, INTERNATIONAL EVALUATION PROJECT "STEP 2000" FOR "DIGITAL WATERMARK" TECHNOLOGY TO BE UNDERTAKEN
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 an international
evaluation project for audio digital watermark technology, the first of its kind
initiated by copyright management bodies, dubbed "STEP 2000".
While "digital watermark" are an essential ingredient for the administration
of copyrighted musical works and copyrights in the digitized / networked age,
it has not gained full recognition and utilization due to insufficient promotion.
This project, while recognizing past standardization initiatives and evaluation
tests, will certify the aptitude of digital watermark technologies, with a view
towards promoting its utilization.
STEP 2000 Organization
STEP 2000 is being organized by JASRAC, CISAC and BIEM. JASRAC, in its function
as the project leader for STEP 2000, will evaluate and certify the technologies
based on the test results, and will make public the companies whose technologies
have been certified. JASRAC has commissioned NRI to handle the technical evaluation
procedures* for the project (NRI will serve as the project secretariat). Also,
the following copyright management societies from around the world will support
STEP 2000 as member organizations (as of June 15, 2000).
APRA (Australia), ASCAP (USA), BMI (USA), BUMA/STEMRA (Netherlands),
CASH (Hong Kong), GEMA (Germany), MCPS/PRS (England), SACEM (France), SGAE (Spain),
SIAE (Italy), TEOSTO (Finland)
*The technical evaluation procedures for the aptitude evaluation of digital watermarks
will be conducted jointly with the Japan Acoustic Laboratory (Headquarters: Shibuya
ward, Tokyo. President: Matsumi Suzuki).
Invitation to Companies to Participate in STEP 2000
STEP 2000 invites the participation of quality audio digital watermark technologies
from around the world. Request for proposals can be found on the following web
pages.
JASRAC homepage (HTML File
/ PDF File)
STEP 2000 Project Schedule
Final proposals to RFP will be accepted until July 14, 2000 (Japan time for all
dates hereunder).ò Participating companies are to provide the project secretariat
with the prescribed items required for evaluation by August 14, 2000, and all
necessary tests required for the evaluation are scheduled to be concluded by September
14, 2000.ò Publication of the companies whose technologies are certified for technical
aptitude will be on or after September 15, 2000.
The Significance of STEP 2000 for JASRAC
On June 3, 1999, JASRAC announced its vision for the copyright management system
of the digitized and networked age, the "DAWN 2000" plan. DAWN 2001
is a statement to copyright owners and end users alike on how copyrights should
be managed and protected, as well as a proposal to transmission service operators
and other businesses involved in the digital distribution of music on how copyright
management and protection should be incorporated into their businesses. In doing
so, it presents a concept of usage licensing under the conditions of "copy
protection", "usage reporting" and "digital watermarking"
of the sound recording.
For JASRAC, STEP 2000 is one very important "step" in the realization
of DAWN 2001.
*The term "STEP 2000" comes from the abbreviation of "by Societies,
Technical Evaluation for Promoting practical utilization of digital watermark".
Copyright administration organizations are typically referred to as "societies".
*For questions concerning STEP 2000, please contact:
•JASRAC Public Relations Department,
•NRI Public Relations Department,
Terminology: Digital Watermark
Digital watermark technology is a technology whereby copy control signals and
identification data, for the purpose of content management, are embedded into
digital content data, in this case music data. Until now, these functions were
dependent on data inserted into content data "headers", but because
data included in headers are easy to find and relatively easy to remove (alter),
they were considered inadequate for copyright protection and management purposes
in digital music distribution.
Because the embedding of information data using digital watermark technology partially
replaces data from the entire length of the content data, it is believed that
removal and alteratiojn of this data would be difficult, eliminating some of the
problems inherent with previous solutions. However, digital watermarks have their
own technologically induced weaknesses, such as decline in sound quality as a
result of the partial replacement of the original data, and the erasure of watermark
data as a result of music utilization processes. These issues must be dealt with
by trading off requirements on information quantity and time cycles.
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