It's been a tough summer for data security

摘要

Those of you working in media encryption and identification might be looking back with fondness at last year, when the DeCSS DVD-Video security-circumventing scheme was the worst thing you had to worry about (see "Media security thwarts temptation, permits prosecution," EDN, June 22,2000, pg 101). In the past few months alone: 1. Edward Felton, a professor at Princeton University, and his associates successfully attacked four audio-watermarking proposals that the SDMI (Secure Digital Media Initiative) were considering. The researchers received a letter from legal representatives of the Recording Industry Association of America threatening prosecution under the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). As a result, the researchers did not publish and present their results, as they originally planned, at the April 25 to 27 Information Hiding Workshop in Pitts- burgh. However, after months of negotiation, they presented the paper on Aug 15 at the Usenix Security Conference.