The watermarks identified the songs and pinpointed them to an illegal file sharer who distributed their work over 35 000 times in four weeks. He got sued, the band won.

This may be the first time a band has successfully prosecuted illegal download of their music based on inaudible digital watermarks as evidence.

I for one say: kudos!

While I understand the argument about the music industry changing and the claims that musicians just need to adjust to this new way I also know how costly, in financial and emotional terms, and time spent, music production is. Not everyone has Radiohead’s budget, matter of fact hardly any musicians do.

So taking away the few opportunities for them to earn a living by stealing their music is simply not okay. The same holds true for movies and software. Filesharing is stealing.

If you participate in this currently, ask yourself how you would like it if you spent a year recording your music (or shooting your movie or coding software or whatever) and then somebody just takes it and gives it away for free?

Anyhow, inaudible digital watermarking isn’t totally new but it seems to be gaining momentum now. DOMAIN’s success certainly helps.

Digital Audio Watermarking

Microsoft got their version patented and call it Stealthy Audio Watermarking. There are other ways of doing this. Sometimes this is also referred to as forensic watermarking. Don’t confuse this with traditional DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Forensic watermarking cannot easily be stripped out by thieves. You can’t just convert the watermarked file to another format and be done with it. That’s great news for those wanting to protect their audio content from theft. It won’t stop everyone but it helps.

And before you ask – YES, you can also watermark your visual (video) content and make the watermark imperceptible to the human eye. Video watermarking isn’t quite perfect but it’s getting there. Some content watermarked may look a bit different from the non-watermarked version because the way the digital watermark is embedded in the picture. Think of very slight grain.

In any event, one of the pioneers of digital watermarking is Digimarc. Check them out to learn how you can protect your content. (I’m not paid by or endorsing Digimarc in any way, I provide this link for your informational purposes only. Your mileage with this, or any other technology, may vary.)

NOW is the time to splurge a little on new software and hardware – December 31st is coming soon so here are my recommendations. Just the best of the best, no filler shit that you don’t need. THESE recommendations will make a difference for you. If not, it’s not the software or the hardware, it’s YOU….

1) Adobe Production Premium CS 4

More of less drastic improvements to Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Flash Professional, and After Effects. If you’re editing AVCHD video footage this is a must buy: Premiere Pro CS 4 now natively supports AVCHD codecs. Most other professional video editing programs do not. And you’re past the consumer software stuff, right?

As with Adobe CS’ previous versions, the integration between programs is very tight. If you have not jumped onto the Adobe wagon I strongly suggest you do that now – your workflow will drastically improve.

Adobe Production Premium CS 4 – WINDOWS

Adobe Production Premium CS 4 – MAC (with Intel chips only!)

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2) Intel Core i7 965  3.2 Ghz Processor; DDR3 Memory; Motherboard

One of the most dramatic speed improvements you can treat yourself with doesn’t come cheap. But Intel’s new Core i7 processor platform frankly kicks the shit out of everything I have ever encountered when it comes to processor speeds.

You could go a step lower (and cheaper) with the 940 and you’ll experience greatly improved speeds and efficiency in your workflow. But hell, why not go all the way and really squeeze out some power to shave off those extra seconds of rendering and encoding time, right?

Buy the boxed Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Processor here.

Important Note: the Core i7 processors do require a different motherboard and memory. You can NOT use your Socket 775 motherboard with this. You’ll need to upgrade to the Socket LGA 1366 platform. A good mobo is the Intel Extreme Series X58.

(Writing all this I really wish Intel would drop that silly “Extreme” moniker on their products. What is this, 1990’s New Jersey?)

Finally, you’ll need DDR3 memory to run this beast. The Corsair TR 3×6G set of memory sticks are decent, it’s a total of 6 Gigs and the price is acceptable too, particularly considering the performance. However, if you are running a 64 bit version of Windows Vista or XP then do take advantage of the fact that you can use more than the 4 Gig (yeah, yeah 3 plus) older 32 bit versions can.

You can probably get DDR3 memory cheaper if you shop around but be sure to skip the “value” memory junk you might encounter. Newegg.com is one of my favorite shopping sources.

Regardless, you’ll be spending a good chunk of cash for all this but the increased efficiency (and enthusiasm I might add) when it comes to your video and photo editing, animations, or Flash stuff, should make up for this. Did for me.

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No Final Cut Pro recommendations. Sorry, Adobe finally took the crown and is now the top choice for this current generation of serious video and photo pros. I tried ‘em all. All of them. Final Cut Pro, Avid, Sony Vegas, and Adobe’s Premiere Pro. Premiere Pro wins for me, hands down.