Digital BatteryA Portable System to Gather

Statistical Utilization Information for Digital Media without Compromising Consumer Anonymity

Timothy A. Budd Dept of Computer ScienceOregon State University

Artists, Producers and ConsumersTraditionally, the

relationships between artists, producers and consumers rested on

• rights• royalties• the difficulty of reproduction

The Napster ThreatPeer to peer sharing systems

break all the rules• Consumers duplicate artifacts• Producers get no revenue• Producers cannot measure

popularity• Artists get no royalties

Protection of Intellectual PropertyDebate over Intellectual

property is not newMechanisms such as

copyright or patent always pit the good of society as a whole against a return on investment for an individual

History LessonCan you guess the date for

the following quote?

``There is no author who will consecrate his efforts to the instruction of his century if pirating is made legal’’

More History LessonThe French Enlightenment

thinkers wanted to free intellectual thought from the shackles of commercialism

Napsters often make the same cry

History shows it didn’t work.

Yet More HistoryWhen copy centers started

being popular (1970’s) people found it cheaper to copy a book than to buy it.

Required a change in laws, and several high profile lawsuits to change this behavior.

Even More HistoryOther intellectual property

items have similar recent history:

• Cassette tapes• Movies• Digital Audio Tapes (DAT)• Software

Why Digital Content?Digital content has obvious

advantages• Greater fidelity• No Degradation• Ease of duplication• Infinitely MalleableYet all of these can be

problems

Threatened IndustryAnother quiz. Peer to peer

sharing of digital content represents a threat to which of the following industries?

1. Music2. Video3. Cross stitch Patterns

If Everybody is a criminalWorse, if everybody is

duplicating intellectual property, how does the producer obtain damages?

``What kind of damages could we possibly get from a grandmother?’’

Is there a future?Many pessimists have

claimed the future will parallel eighteenth century France

(I.e., artists will cease creating new content)

I’m more optimistic

How to Monitor contentOther (so far unsuccessful)

attempts to solve this problem focus either on

• Control of Duplication • Control of UseAll tend to fall apart at some

point

A Solution: The Digital BatteryIntuition behind the solution: Consumers don’t like

content that they cannot access or use, but don’t mind if their walkman stops when the batteries run out.

Characteristics of a Digital BatteryA Digital Battery must have the

following characteristics:• Inexpensive• Easy, anonymous to acquire and

use• Limited Lifetime• Essential to the operation• Must allow content provider

access to information on utilization

How to Achieve these GoalsAll these goals can be achieved

using Smart Card technology combined with cryptology

The battery provides a decoding, as well as monitoring and recording utilization.

Battery is exhausted when it can no longer record

What will it Look Like?Will look like a small smart

card, or media card. The face can even be sold as

advertising property.Consumers must be

convinced that it is reasonable, anonymous, and fair.

Public CryptographyPublic Key Cryptography is a

key feature• Content is encoded (by

many producers) using public key

• Content is decoded (within the battery) using private key

How to get utilization statistics?Most innovative feature -- how

to get utilization statistics back to content producers?

Two possibilities• Place Deposit on battery• Create ATM like recharging

stations.

Balancing ActConsumers are increasingly

wary of releasing personal information

How to balance consumer expectation of anonymity and the content providers need for utilization information.

No Exact StatisticsNotice content providers get

large sample statistics, not precise information

Paranoid consumers can refuse to return batteries

Nobody knows who is listening to Nine-inch-nails

Implications of Digital BatteryMoves the revenue stream from

access to utilization of contentPeer to Peer sharing is not a

threat (its an advantage!)Can work in autonomous devicesYields detailed utilization

information, while preserving consumer anonymity

AttacksThe digital battery is

designed to be a bottleneck, and hence obvious target for attack

Defenses are technical, legal, and commercial

Technical DefensesAs processing powers

increases (Moores law) you can put ever more powerful crypto algorithms on board

A single break will not then be permanently catestrophic

Legal DefensesIt will probably still be

necessary to sue people who try to make a profit from the distribution of large ticket items (such as movies)

History shows a few high profile court cases go a long way

Commercial DefensesBest defense is commercial. Napster saga shows us that

consumers do not make moral choices, but economic ones

It simply must be easier and less expensive to do the right thing than to do the wrong thing.

Will it Work?Technical problems are not

the issue. Will consumers accept it? They will if the devices are:

• easy to use• ubiquitous• and cheap.

ConclusionDigital Battery addresses:A way to provide a revenue

stream to content producersA way to deal with the problem

of reproductionA way to generate utilization

infoPreserving User Anonymity