Collusion-resistant watermarking and fingerprinting

One or more computer-readable storage media comprising computer-executable instructions executed for performing acts comprising:

• generating a plurality of watermark detection keys with corresponding watermark carriers, wherein for distribution of a digital good, the digital good is marked with at least one watermark corresponding to the watermark detection keys, wherein the watermark carriers are not embedded in the digital good during marking with the watermark, wherein, when the watermark is modified or removed from the digital good using one or more of the watermark detection keys, one or more of the watermark carriers corresponding to the one or more watermark detection keys used to modify or remove the watermark are detected from examination of the digital good;
• following distribution of the digital good, determining that the watermark in the digital good has been modified or removed;
• and
• identifying, by a detector implemented by a processor of a computer executing the computer-executable instructions, at least one of the watermark carriers by examination of the digital good when the watermark has been modified or removed.

A system for facilitating the protection of digital goods, the system comprising:

• a digital good having a watermark embedded therein;
• a memory configured to store one or more watermark detection keys corresponding to the watermark, each watermark detection key including a corresponding watermark carrier, wherein, when the watermark is embedded in the digital good, the watermark carriers are not embedded in the digital good, wherein, when the watermark is modified or removed from the digital good using one or more of the watermark detection keys, one or more of the watermark carriers corresponding to the one or more watermark detection keys used to modify or remove the watermark are detected from examination of the digital good;
• a watermark detector configured to determine that the embedded watermark has been modified or removed from the digital good;
• and
• a fingerprint detector including one or more processors configured to identify at least one of the watermark carriers from an examination of the digital good when the watermark has been modified or removed.

A method for facilitating the protection of digital goods, the method comprising:

• generating a plurality of individualized watermark detection keys, each including a corresponding unique watermark carrier associated therewith by combining a secret watermarking key with each unique watermark carrier;
• marking a digital good by using the secret watermarking key for embedding at least one digital watermark in the digital good, wherein the at least one digital watermark corresponds to the individualized watermark detection keys, wherein the watermark carriers are not embedded in the digital good during marking of the digital good by embedding the digital watermark, wherein when the digital watermark is modified or removed from the digital good using a plurality of the individualized watermark detection keys during a collusion attack, one or more of the watermark carriers corresponding to the one or more watermark detection keys used to modify or remove the watermark are detected from examination the digital good;
• associating each unique watermark carrier to a specific detection entity, whereby each detection entity includes a different individualized watermark detection key able to detect the watermark using correlation-based watermark detection;
• distributing the digital good;
• detecting that the embedded digital watermark has been modified or removed from an attacked version of the digital good that was distributed by comparing the attacked version of the digital good with an originally marked version of the digital good;
• recovering, by a detector implemented by a processor executing computer-executable instructions stored in computer-readable storage media an attack vector that was used in a collusion attack to modify or remove the watermark from the digital good by examination of the attacked version of the digital good in comparison with the originally marked version of the digital good;
• identifying, by the detector, a plurality of the watermark carriers from correlation with the attack vector recovered from the digital good, wherein the identified watermark carriers correspond to a plurality of the individualized watermark detection keys that were used in the collusion attack on the digital good;
• and
• identifying, by the detector, specific detection entities as being associated with individualized watermark detection keys used in the collusion attack from the identified watermark carriers.