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Saw this article on Reddit. Apparently the JPEG is considering blockchain to insert DRM in the photo format.
The Joint Photographic Experts Group is a working group of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). They're best known for the JPEG standard for image compression, and for various related image standards.
They had their 78th quarterly meeting from 27 January to 2 February 2018 — with the press release afterwards prominently namedropping "blockchain."
The Twitter reaction was "lol what," and even the cryptocurrency press ignored it — but there's more to this than slapping on a buzzword, and it's not good. They seem to think they can advance the cause of DRMed JPEGs with a bit of applied blockchain.
The Quarterly meeting and official announcement were back in February, so this article is a bit behind, but I had not heard anything of this.
As a photog who routinely plasters watermarks all over photos of my children before releasing them to the wilds of social media I can sympathize with the desire to protect photos, but on the surface this seems an odd way to go about it. For now, though, it's just something they're "exploring".
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday August 12 2018, @05:14AM (8 children)
Finally I can replace my JPEG 2000 images with a superior format.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @05:41AM (2 children)
Wow, JPEG2000. Used by maybe 4 people on the planet. As may befall this proposed JPPeG, the extra P is for 'Privacy" (cough DRM cough).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @02:31PM (1 child)
JPEG2000 is the go to format for high resolution scan raws before they get processed. It's used by far more than 4 people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @11:25PM
Are you talking about the lossless JPEG2000 format? Otherwise your comment wouldn't make sense.
(Score: 2) by Apparition on Sunday August 12 2018, @01:03PM (4 children)
I wish JPEG 2000 actually took off. Or at least JPEG-XR. But, in the Year of Our Lord 2018, everyone still uses regular ol' JPEG. I actually partially blame Mozilla for that, because their developers insist that JPEG is "enough" and see no reason to add JPEG 2000 or JPEG-XR support to Firefox even though they both have open source decoders.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Sunday August 12 2018, @01:47PM (3 children)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV1#AV1_Still_Image_File_Format_(AVIF) [wikipedia.org]
As for Firefox, given that "nobody" is making/using JPEG2000, adding support for it could just be adding new bugs, i.e. potential vulnerabilities.
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(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Sunday August 12 2018, @02:01PM (2 children)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16803250 [ycombinator.com]
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(Score: 2) by Apparition on Sunday August 12 2018, @03:03PM (1 child)
Interesting, thanks. Now the trick will be to see if AV1F actually sees support and gets used, or if it withers on the vine like JPEG 2000, JPEG-XR, WebP, and BPG [bellard.org].
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday August 12 2018, @06:00PM
I'm already worried about the name. AVI...F? And work on the standard [cnet.com] is very preliminary since they want to get AV1 good and supported. That's crucial since it will be an uphill battle to get the same kind of hardware support that H.264 and H.265 have.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @05:18AM (2 children)
Blockchain is the buzzword de jeur. Look how nicely it is working out for the 'cryptocurrency' blockchain 'market' (giant ponzi scheme) at the moment - losses of $18BN in 24 hours. And once a chain starts to fail - https://youtu.be/hMytHt1D1go [youtu.be]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @05:57PM
It has its place. I also dont feel that cryptocurrency is a ponzi scheme, however now that some are being 'traded', those cant be trusted.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 13 2018, @07:30PM
and you probably think fractional reserve banking is the legit shit? stupid slave.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Sunday August 12 2018, @08:12AM (2 children)
cn I take a photograph of a blockchain?
Does my camera have to be connected to the internet to take photos?
Does my computer add the blockchain code when it adds the company's watermark?
How much bitcoin does the blockchain company charge to remove all the watermarks?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday August 12 2018, @11:34AM (1 child)
Will they implement copyright expiry into the blockchain? I don't think so, although it should be possible in principle.
How will the blockchain detect fair use? I don't think that's even possible.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @04:25PM
Never, because then it would be clear to everybody that copyright actually expires sometime. The current system is much better because you can never be sure whether the copyright of some item has actually expired because of the current byzantine multilayered system.
Just look at this goddamn mess https://copyright.cornell.edu/publicdomain [cornell.edu]
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday August 12 2018, @08:43AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @08:43AM (1 child)
Never worry about your images again. With jpeg blockchain DRM protecting your images, your images will only take a short amount of time and resources to be verified through our severs at blockchain.verify.jpeg
Battery technology in your phone has advanced to the point that you have the extra joules to encode and decode every image your phone takes or displays. No more wondering "will this picture of my lunch go viral and be the next jpeg sensation?" Now your phone will register every photo with our servers and help us verify it every time someone sees it (so make sure you leave your phone turned on at all times).
Private texting? Social media? The intertubes? Your images will be protected everywhere they are with our proprietary blockchain licensing. Purchase your personal or commercial license today!
(Score: 2) by Walzmyn on Sunday August 12 2018, @11:48AM
Thank you.
I was trying not to editorialize in the submission, but this is pretty much spot on the sarcasm I wanted to throw at it.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Sunday August 12 2018, @12:15PM (6 children)
Speaking as the author of three powerful image manipulation packages with many thousands of users and as a photographer with 40 years experience of making good money from my photography:
Would not support.
At this point, in the US (and largely elsewhere), copyright and patent law are absolutely bonkers. Implementation of this sort of thing would just make the situation worse, IMHO. And believe me, it can get worse.
And a little bit of advice:
If you don't want your images shared, don't make them available on the Internet. Because there is no possible way to protect an image from being shared once it's out there. If it is put into the pixels of your monitor, it can ultimately be lifted right from there one way or another, sans protection other than image-damaging watermarks in the pixels (and those can often be defeated anyway.) The only way to keep images "safe" from sharing is to see that said image never reaches anyone's monitor. All else purporting to be "protection" is smoke and mirrors and only serves to make the digital imaging more complex for no actual benefit other than to the purveyors of the supposed "protection."
Also: if you want money for your images, get it up front and call it a day.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @01:24PM
But ... but ... blockchain! Blockchain! Not only can it blockcahin, but the jpeg people will make sure it is full of sharding so it can be web scale! Blockchain!
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @04:44PM
Saying that DRM does nothing to enhance images is like saying promoting birth control does nothing to help the baby come out in a less chaotic fashion.
These things ideas do not include the bad examples as part of their overall intent.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday August 13 2018, @04:34AM (3 children)
Yes, I wonder what it will take to really convince everyone that DRM is stupid, so stupid that it's not worth a thought, like the core idea of alchemy, turning lead into gold. No one takes alchemy seriously today, and I'm supposing the only reason it ever was taken seriously was the seductively simple notion that because lead and gold are both very dense, they might be closely related enough that one could be transformed into the other. Now we know better. Someday, I hope the same will be true of DRM, that everyone except crackpots will understand it is illogical nonsense, and it will join the ranks of pseudoscience, alongside perpetual motion, alchemy, numerology, and astrology. And that it will happen sooner than a century or more from now.
By purporting to protect from a loss, no matter how small, contrived, or illusory, DRM pushes our emotional buttons. Of course we want theft prevented. But DRM does not stop theft nor copying, and copying is not theft, no matter how much copyright propagandists say otherwise.
It's sad how much effort and money has been wasted on copy protection. Every one has been broken, some in a matter of hours. DRM is the pseudoscience of the Age of information.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 13 2018, @09:46AM (1 child)
TFA addresses this point, indirectly, here:
So, to convince everyone one also has to convince the non-technical. And the problem there is the non-techincal. Any argument as to why it does not work has to be somewhat technical, at which point the non-technical will fail to understand it. And then we will go around the loop one more time.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday August 13 2018, @12:38PM
Yes, I think that explains the MAFIAA's stance. But some big tech companies, such as Microsoft, share this view. Microsoft ought to know better, but they don't. Why? Is it that the leaders of Microsoft are business people more than tech people?
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday August 13 2018, @07:55PM
You could turn lead into gold though, given the right circumstances. Not saying it is easy, but it should be possible at some point with technology. Actually, it has already been done, but not at any scale that would make money, or provide useful amounts of gold.
I actually have a lot more faith in alchemy than DRM. Alchemy at its core, is beneficial to humanity. DRM? Will never provide any benefit to humanity, nor to the people attempting to control others with it.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @05:36PM
This sort of crap will render the format to the grave, for a whole host of reasons, some technical, some political. Much like GIF after they did stupid stuff with licensing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 13 2018, @03:05AM (2 children)
*looks at keyboard* Yup, the Print Screen key is still here.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 13 2018, @05:14PM (1 child)
New to Web 3.0: Webpage with JavaScript on detects presence of Print Screen key, refuses to render Next Level JPEGs.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 16 2018, @02:19AM
reason eleventy trillion to turn off JS
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday August 14 2018, @03:51AM
They're not thinking this through, clearly.
What happens when someone sneaks some child porn into the blockchain? Because it's going to happen.
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