Effective copyright control on easily duplicated data

If every song sold was uniquely identifiable then record companies could identify the origin of a copy and sue the original purchaser for breach of contract (the contract being to never allowed the music to be reproduced).

The problem is how to encode data into a song.

Embedment into the file format is not an option since audio reproduction would render it useless so it would have to done audibly but without being a distraction to the music.

Compressed audio formats rely on the fact that human hearing has limitations to what it can and can't distinguish. Subtle audio changes in the music could make each copy indistinguishable to humans but not to computer analysis. Small variations in volume, pitch, instrumental mix, melody, speed, and tone throughout the music track could all encode data in audio with enough variables for data redundancy. There are likely other ways. Musicians may even modify music they may otherwise have recorded to be more suitable for an encoding process.

There would be ways of obscuring the encoded payment data but likely only by degrading the quality of the audio. Offering a degraded quality version for free and charging for the real deal is already an existing sanctioned business model.

The system then of course needs to be policed but there's a potential solution to that too.

I worked on a subscription based website a few years ago and came up with a idea to potentially inhibit this practice. It was never implemented for reasons obvious due to its nature but the idea still stands and may be extremely relevant today.

I asked myself a question: how would you discourage people sharing their login details?

If there was a piece of information that both the customer and the retailer shared but only the customer wouldn't like to be shared publicly then that would certainly discourage them.

If the payment details were visible when logging in to the website then you would definitely think twice before even sharing a subscription with a family member or friend.

It's obvious why it isn't a viable option; instant prosecution for sensitive data breaches.

However, there is now massive pressure on producers of easily duplicated data especially music and movies. A music retailer requires payment for each copy of a song. The unique payment information data for each copy is encoded into the audio. The purchaser of the music wouldn't dare copy it since their payment details would be retrievable. Aside from legal issues, security concerns may be more important than music to potential customers but it is a theoretically sound business model.

In a previous post I mentioned that quality computer generated animations could have the open source treatment to lower costs and even improve quality. There's another advantage to computer generated animations which make them perfect for copyright control by unique encoding. Model data, position, colours, size, angles, and editing could all be varied for each master uniquely encoding a movie to identify the original purchaser. A bond could be paid which is lost if your encoded version is ever found on the Internet.