Watermark screening in networked environment

Audio watermark has been found to be an attractive technology for automated identification and protection of copyrighted works against unauthorized use in high-resolution optical media formats, such as Blu-ray Disc and DVD-Audio. Previous systems have been designed to operate in standalone devices without any dependence on local or wide area network connectivity. As newer generations of secure media devices include greater availability of network functionality, opportunities are emerging for more improved watermark-based content protection architectures. This paper describes screening architecture and protocols that enable efficient and secure operation in networked environment, including concepts such as cooperative watermark extraction, delegated screening, background screening combined with content authentication, secure exchange of extraction records, mosaic attack prevention, etc.