arstechnica.com — Microsoft has agreed to license its audio watermarking technology to Activated Content Corp. of Seattle. We all know watermarking's place as a part of the music industry's DRM toolbox, but Activated—already a DRM watermarking player—now wants to use Microsoft's watermarking technology to get into the advertising business. Watermarks... and ads? Yep
Aug 20, 2007 View in Crawl 4
myskAug 20, 2007
obvious spam. web based game invite URL.
Closed AccountAug 20, 2007
It means every track will begin and end with the Windows XP startup and shutdown sounds.
yage2006Aug 20, 2007
Does anyone really care its watermarked ? Seriously. And as a musician I can say I am glad they are going DRM free and I am happy it will be water marked just in case some idiot shares his collection online.
ozydingoAug 20, 2007
Since the labels themselves are also considering using watermarking, it's possible and IMO likely that the audio on the CDs themselves will be watermarked. Obviously won't make a lot of audiophiles happy, but the industry's concern has never been with anyone but the average listener.
thefingerAug 21, 2007
We can think of it this way... We are wildlife. And the advertisers and the marketeers are going to put tags on us, the better to study our migration habits. We won't even know they're there. :)
thefingerAug 21, 2007
buried for: burying for petty reasons
thefingerAug 21, 2007
I don't think it would come to that. It would be too much like AM radio. And we've already been there. On that note, I wish AM radio would just die.
r3zonanceAug 21, 2007
@jgknightedActually, what you described is metadata (as with iTunes Store). A watermark is an almost inperceptible mark which forms part of the content itself (therfore doesn't require anything special to play a file with a watermark) and is very difficult to eradicate.
geehossiphatsAug 21, 2007
I can't wait to use this new innovative teknology. Nothing makes me happier than advertisements and user-restricted content. It's a good thing Microstiff has it's customers best interests in mind.
robbothehoodAug 21, 2007
It's good to know that there is little sleep lost over stealing music here. This is a countermeasure to sharing music illegally. You want Microsoft to leave all you saintly little consumers alone? You're going to have to try something along the lines of not stealing their music, thereby eliminating the need to police its flow.
iomaticSep 29, 2007
That's ALL they do. Innovation? Nope. Experience-based computing? Nope. Useless concepts only Bill wants (tablet, table pc)? Check.