Copyright protection of multimedia data: The "Multimedia Protection Protocol" (MMP)

The Fraunhofer Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen in Erlangen has devised a new technique for distributing digital mulitmedia data under attention to copyright problems: The Multimedia Protection Protocoll (MMP). By using MMP it is possible to distribute digital music tracks and videos freely while keeping control of the usage of the tracks. Using MMP, fees and royalties can be deducted and calculated. MMP is a flexible system that also can store and transmit additional information (like the International Standard Record Code [ISRC], composer, artist, duration etc.). Because MMP ciphers parts of the data, it is especially able to protect compressed multimedia files (like ISO/MPEG Layer 3 audio).