Concepts for a Watermarking Technique for Music Scores

Today's quality of copying machines allows everyone to copy any kind of printed document without significant loss of quality. Copying of music scores represents a particular nuisance. At the same time web-based distribution of music scores in digital representations becomes widespread raising further issues with regard to intellectual property. Although copying music scores cannot be stopped, it is possible to trace such copies by hiding information in the music score itself using watermarking techniques. Two different concepts are presented here: The first regards a music score as an image and uses standard image watermarking techniques. The second is a symbolic approach. Here some music symbols are used by changing their features for hiding information in the music score. The advantage is its robustness and visibility. By choosing suitable features a blind detection of the watermark is possible.