Active Watermarks and Watermark Agents
First Claim
1. Apparatus for responding to a watermark in a watermarked digital representation in a system that has access to storage including storage containing the watermarked digital representation, the apparatus comprising:
- a watermark agent in the storage that includes a program which, when executed, responds to the watermark by causing the system to perform an action involving the watermarked digital representation; and
a watermark agent engine that provides an environment in the system for executing the watermark agent'"'"'s program and executes the watermark agents program in the environment, the watermarked digital representation being accessible to the system for a purpose other than having the watermark read.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques for protecting the security of digital representations and of analog forms made from them, including a technique for authenticating an analog form produced from the digital representation, an active watermark that contains program code that may be executed when the watermark is read, and a watermark agent that reads watermarks and sends messages with information concerning the digital representations that contain the watermarks. A watermark agent may be a permanent resident of a node in a network or of a device or it may move from one network node to another. The watermark agent executes code which examines digital representations residing in the node or device for watermarked digital representations that are of interest to the watermark agent. The watermark agent then sends messages which report the results of its examination of the digital representations. If the watermarks are active, the agent and the active watermark may cooperate.
23 Citations
25 Claims
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1. Apparatus for responding to a watermark in a watermarked digital representation in a system that has access to storage including storage containing the watermarked digital representation,
the apparatus comprising: -
a watermark agent in the storage that includes a program which, when executed, responds to the watermark by causing the system to perform an action involving the watermarked digital representation; and
a watermark agent engine that provides an environment in the system for executing the watermark agent'"'"'s program and executes the watermark agents program in the environment, the watermarked digital representation being accessible to the system for a purpose other than having the watermark read. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. Apparatus in a node in a network for monitoring performance of an action involving one or more watermarked digital representations in other nodes in the network,
the apparatus comprising: -
an agent generator that generates a watermark agent, the watermark agent including a program that, when executed, reads the watermarked digital representation'"'"'s watermark in one or more other nodes in which the watermark agent is resident and determines whether the action has been performed and thereupon sends a message concerning the performance to the apparatus for monitoring performance, the watermark agent proceeding to the one or more other nodes, becoming resident therein, and the program being executed therein; and
a message handler for receiving the message sent by the watermark agent from the one or more other nodes in which the watermark agent is resident and dealing therewith. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method practiced in a node of a network of monitoring performance of an action involving a set of watermarked digital representations contained in storage belonging to the node,
the method comprising the steps of: -
receiving a watermark agent in the node, the watermark agent including a program which, when executed in the node, reads the watermarks in the watermarked digital representations of the set, makes a determination whether the action has been performed for each of the watermarked digital representations, and responds to the determination; and
executing the program in the node. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification