Audio watermarks let the MPAA know where a recording was taken, but not by whom
By Tim Stevens 
posted Mar 9th 2009 8:09AM
posted Mar 9th 2009 8:09AM
We've heard of some crazy audio watermark plans in the past, designed to prevent people from making copies of Hollywood blockbusters, and as the audio industry finally moves away from its protective restrictions, the film industry seems to just keep working on more. The latest, created by Professor Noboru Babaguchi and his colleagues at Osaka University in Japan, is a means to apply spread-spectrum audio waveforms to a film's multi-channel soundtrack, enabling pirate seekers to determine exactly (well, to within 44 centimeters) where the bootlegger was sitting when he or she committed his or her felonious deeds. Interesting, sure, but unless all theaters worldwide start assigning seats by name it's useless. Beyond that, there's nothing stopping an intrepid recorder from stashing a mic a few feet to the left or the right, thus implicating an idle popcorn-muncher. Will these flaws keep this technology from being implemented? Don't count on it.[Via Slashdot]
I think you are missing the next step. Security cameras in the theaters. The plan is stupid, unworkable and intrusive when they add the cameras. That means the MPAA will be grabbing it with both hands.
Actually, next step is the Movie Theater will assign a chaperone to each paying customer to sit next to them during the movie.
Actually, this is ingenius. Most movie theatres in places like India, Japan etc... use assigned numbers to seats. Since piracy is so rampant in those countries such as India or China, it's only a matter of time before they go back and see who bought the seats around where it was recorded.
This won't have an effect in the states or Canada, but it could effect asian countries a lot.
Idiots.
Actually, Movie theaters in Japan do have assigned seating. You purchase movie tickets while viewing a display of the theater with available seats indicated.
As you say, unless this is done worldwide, this technology won't do much good. I see more benefit in the technology that blinds CCDs thus making videotaping off the screen impossible.
Hollywood release films in R5 format to places like Russia and the like very early in the films release to stop people from downloading them illegally. Since these make their way onto the web within minutes of being released, surely this is a bigger problem for them? Of their own doing!?
Basically the places that could implement this will rarely be the places that have people filming, so utterly useless.