Two bodies promoting digital commerce and copyright protection will start large-scale testing in December of a "digital watermark" system to prevent piracy, officials with the bodies said Saturday.
The Content ID Forum and the Digital Content Association of Japan will conduct the nation's first test of digital watermark coding to manage the copyrights of products through the Internet.
The watermarks consist of copyright warnings in digital goods such as movies, photographs and music. They are expected to boost e-commerce, which has been hindered due to concerns about copyright protection, the officials said.
The 180-member CIDF was established by Hiroshi Yasuda, a professor at the University of Tokyo, to provide a strong mechanism for copyright management. The 200-member DCAJ, led by Sony Corp. Chairman Nobuyuki Idei, was established for a similar purpose.
The two-month test will start in December. The organizations will begin preparations to connect servers and networks of participating companies in October.
In the test, users will scan IDs on watermarks in digital products and retrieve copyright information from databases at ID-management centers.
DCAJ will act as a copyright authorization organization in the test. Subsidies for it will be provided by an organization affiliated with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the officials said.
Companies under Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. are expected to act as ID-management centers, the officials said, adding they are still looking for firms to participate. Digital product maker groups are also expected to take part.