How high does the audio quality of the unwatermarked music have to be in order to defeat a watermarking technology?
Remember that the goal of a watermarking system is to prevent piracy. If there is a way to remove the watermark (or render it undetectable) while retaining high enough audio quality that a pirate would be able to distribute the music, then the watermarking technology will not be effective. In short, if the modified music still sounds good to an ordinary person, its quality is high enough. There is no need for the kind of elaborate testing involving “golden-ear” experts that SDMI now wants to establish as the standard of success. It doesn’t matter what a few exceptional individuals can hear in a piece of music, what matters is whether it sounds okay to a regular person.
