Watermarking Images via Counting-Based Secret Sharing for Lightweight Semi-Complete Authentication

Watermarking is the process of embedding specific data to prove ownership copyright authentication. It is needed whenever media-files are used without proper permission is granted. The current watermarking challenge comes from the ownership proof especially as slight tampering occurs on the multimedia-file which injure the watermarking causing difficulty in its copyright proof. This paper proposes utilizing counting-based secret sharing strategy to allow validation of ownership RGB watermarking even if some of the image-file is interfered. We validate image watermarking partially as lightweight semi-complete verification, which is not possible in the normal random-stream watermarking schemes. Although the work is still in its early stage, it is promising research showing real attractive contribution opportunities. The work is tested and compared to other strategies in aspects of robustness, capacity, and security, providing attractive remarks worth noting. The study evaluation results showed interesting contribution believed to be pioneering.

Multiscale Content-Independent Feature Fusion Network for Source Camera Identification

In recent years, source camera identification has become a research hotspot in the field of image forensics and has received increasing attention. It has high application value in combating the spread of pornographic photos, copyright authentication of art photos, image tampering forensics, and so on. Although the existing algorithms greatly promote the research progress of source camera identification, they still cannot effectively reduce the interference of image content with image forensics. To suppress the influence of image content on source camera identification, a multiscale content-independent feature fusion network (MCIFFN) is proposed to solve the problem of source camera identification. MCIFFN is composed of three parallel branch networks. Before the image is sent to the first two branch networks, an adaptive filtering module is needed to filter the image content and extract the noise features, and then the noise features are sent to the corresponding convolutional neural networks (CNN), respectively. In order to retain the information related to the image color, this paper does not preprocess the third branch network, but directly sends the image data to CNN. Finally, the content-independent features of different scales extracted from the three branch networks are fused, and the fused features are used for image source identification. The CNN feature extraction network in MCIFFN is a shallow network embedded with a squeeze and exception (SE) structure called SE-SCINet. The experimental results show that the proposed MCIFFN is effective and robust, and the classification accuracy is improved by approximately 2% compared with the SE-SCINet network.

Prospects and challenges posed by blockchain technology on the copyright legal system

In the current copyright law and technology environment, two prominent problems must be considered when enforcing and executing copyrights: (i) the difficulty of proving authorship/ownership of a copyright; and (ii) the difficulty of conducting copyright transactions. The invention of blockchain technology has made it possible to solve these two issues. First, the use of blockchain technology with the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is an excellent mechanism for copyright authentication and document preservation. This mechanism allows authors (copyright owners) to prove authorship of their works and copyrights ownership. However, this mechanism for copyright authentication and document preservation may not be applicable in the future primarily because the computer software currently used may be upgraded in the following years. Second, the combination of Ethereum Blockchain and smart contracts can reduce transaction costs and enhance the efficiency of copyright assignments and licensing transactions. However, many legal problems regarding smart contracts have yet to be addressed. These problems include identifying the contracting parties in the anonymous blockchain network, dealing with scenarios where both contracting parties want to amend the implemented smart contracts, explaining code-based smart contracts and setting up an internal dispute resolution mechanism. Unlike the traditional transmission control protocol/Internet protocol network, where any activity is traceable, users on blockchain technology remain anonymous and their activities on the blockchain are hardly traceable. Although the blockchain itself is unlikely to become a hotbed of copyright infringement, the combination of the Ethereum Blockchain, the IPFS and smart contracts may make the entire process a hotbed of copyright infringement. Therefore, this situation poses considerable worries regarding copyright infringement on the blockchain. When the decentralized and anonymized blockchain and peripheral technologies mature, they will have considerable influence on copyright protection. This problem must be addressed by the copyright legal system in the current wave of blockchain technology implementation.

Role of Scaling Factor in Robust Digital Watermarking

Digital watermarking has been identified as an efficient tool to provide copyright authentication and protection of digital data. Robustness and Imperceptibility are the two key parameters in designing of watermarking system. It is always desired to design a watermarking system that provides excellent robustness to malicious attacks and the watermark is invisible to human eyes. The robustness and imperceptibility can be controlled by choosing an effective scaling factor. Scaling factor decides on the amount of insertion of watermark in the host image. Higher the value of scaling factor more visible the watermark will be in watermarked image, this leads to poor imperceptibility. However the increase in scaling factor leads to a more robust watermarking system. Finding a trade-off among both is the key issue of research in this area. This paper aims at describing the effect of selection of scaling factor on robustness and imperceptibility by taking different values of scaling factor during each watermarking process. The empirical analysis done in this work shows robustness can be improved at the cost of imperceptibility and vice-versa.