The major software developer’s new plan to combat piracy relies on the transparency of blockchain technology.
Windows operating system and Office productivity suite have always
been top performers on any software piracy platforms. So, it’s no wonder
that Microsoft, the developer of both products, works hard to establish
anti-piracy measures.
In a new paper
released by Microsoft’s research department, with the participation of
researchers from Alibaba and Carnegie Mellon University, the
Redmond-based software giant studied a blockchain-based incentive system
to bolster anti-piracy campaigns.
As the title of the research, Argus: A Fully Transparent Incentive System for Anti-Piracy Campaigns,
suggests, Microsoft’s new system relies on the transparency aspect of
blockchain technology. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Argus aims to
provide a trustless incentive mechanism while protecting data collected
from the open anonymous population of piracy reporters.
“We see
this as a distributed system problem,” the paper stated, “In the
implementation, we overcome a set of unavoidable obstacles to ensure
security despite full transparency.”
Argus enables backtracing of
pirated content to the source with a corresponding watermark algorithm
detailed in the paper. Also named “proof of leakage,” each report of
leaked content involves an information-hiding procedure. This way, no
one but the informer can report the same watermarked copy without
actually owning it.
The system also has incentive-reducing
safeguards to prevent an informer from reporting the same leaked content
over and over under different aliases. “With the security and
practicality of Argus, we hope real-world antipiracy campaigns will be
truly effective by shifting to a fully transparent incentive mechanism,”
the report stated.
Detailing the issue of Ethereum network fees,
the paper explained that the team optimized several cryptographic
operations “so that the cost for piracy reporting is reduced to an
equivalent cost of sending about 14 ETH-transfer transactions to run on
the public Ethereum network, which would otherwise correspond to
thousands of transactions.”
Related: Privacy-preserving computation on blockchains could prevent breaches
Tech
companies worldwide have become increasingly concerned with protecting
intellectual property and fighting digital piracy. As Cointelegraph
previously reported, Tech Mahindra, the IT subsidiary of Indian
conglomerate Mahindra Group, recently launched a new blockchain-based
digital contracts and rights platform on IBM’s Hyperledger Fabric protocol for the media and entertainment industry.
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/microsoft-wants-to-use-ethereum-blockchain-to-fight-piracy
