Transcoding resistant robust watermarking technique using entropy-based selective spread spectrum

Abstract

The growth of the internet makes it easier for data owners to transfer digital multimedia content over the internet. This provides an environment where hackers can easily scoop the content and illegally redistribute it which increases the need for efficient copyright protection mechanisms like digital watermarking. The future internet will have various heterogeneous devices like laptop, mobile and IPTV which require the data to be transcoded according to the end user devices. But the process of transcoding affects the embedded watermark making it difficult to prove the ownership rights. The current scenario is to embed the watermark in the content after it has been transcoded which requires watermarking the same content after each transcoding. This paper investigates the effects of transcoding on watermark and recommends a robust watermarking algorithm such that watermark can be embedded in the original content once and can be retrieved even after the content is transcoded.