Method and system for digital watermarking

1. A system for applying a digital watermark to a content signal, the signal comprising;

a receiver for receiving at least one digital watermark and at least one key comprising information describing where in the content signal the at least on digital watermark is to be encoded;

an encoder for encoding the at least one digital watermark into the content signal according to the at least one key to produce at least one watermarked content signal; and

a decoder for detecting and/or decoding the at least one digital watermark from a watermarked content signal using the at least one key.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein said key is selected from the group comprising: a random key; a pseudo-random key; a watermark key; a watermarking key; a private key; a public key; a semiprivate key; a master framework key; and, a digital watermark key.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein said encoder is configured to process a plurality of functions.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein said encoder adds a digital signature to the content signal.

5. The system according to claim 1 , wherein said encoder is configured to process a plurality of digital watermarks.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein said encoder upgrades said device.

7. A method for watermarking a content signal with a plurality of functions, including the input of at least a key and a digital watermark, the method configured to be executed by a computer programmed to perform the steps of:

providing a key generated by the following steps;

generating a random sequence of binary numbers; and

generating information describing the application of the random sequence to the content signal wherein combining the random sequence and the generated information forms the key;

providing a digital watermark to be encoded;

encoding the digital watermark using at least the key and the plurality of functions to produce a watermarked content signal; and

detecting at least a portion of the digital watermark from a watermark content signal using the key.

8. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising: using said key to encode a plurality of digital watermarks into the content signal.

9. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising: decoding at least a portion of at least one of the digital watermarks from the encoded content signal.

10. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising: generating a decode key for each digital watermark.

11. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising: adding a digital signature to the content signal.

12. A system for watermarking at least one content signal, the system comprising:

a digital watermark encoder; and

a digital watermark decoder;

said digital watermark encoder being configured to encode at least one digital watermark into locations in the content signal using at least one key comprising information describing where in the content signal the at least one watermark is to be encoded; and

said digital watermark decoder being configured to detect and/or decode at least one digital watermark from an encoded content signal using the at least one key.

13. The digital watermarking system of claim 12 , wherein said digital watermark encoder comprises a first software program, and said digital watermark decoder comprises a second software program, said first program being independent of said second program.

14. The digital watermarking system of claim 12 , wherein said digital watermark encoder comprises a first hardware device and said digital watermark decoder comprises a second hardware device, said first hardware device being separate from said second hardware device.

15. The digital watermarking system of claim 12 , wherein the digital watermark decoder comprises a software decoding key for detecting a plurality of digital watermarks that have been encoded within a content signal.

16. The digital watermarking system of claim 12 , wherein the digital watermark decoder comprises software embedded in hardware that is programmed to automatically search for any watermarks in any data that is stored within a memory of the hardware.

17. The digital watermarking system of claim 12 , wherein the digital watermark decoder comprises a content distribution system that is programmed to search for any watermarks that might be embedded into a content signal.

18. The digital watermarking system of claim 12 , wherein the digital watermark decoder comprises a scanner that searches for any watermarks that might be embedded into the data being scanned.

19. A device for decoding digital watermarks, the device comprising:

a receiver for receiving a content signal steganographically encoded with at least one steganographic digital watermark using at least one key comprising information describing where in the content signal the at least one digital watermark is to be encoded; and

a decoder for decoding at least one steganographic digital watermark from the steganographically encoded content signal, wherein the device limits the ability to reverse the encoding.

20. The device according to claim 19 , wherein said decoder includes a processor for processing keys.

21. The device according to claim 19 , wherein said decoder upgrades said device.

22. The device according to claim 19 , wherein said decoder verifies the presence of at least one of a plurality of digital watermarks.

23. The device according to claim 19 , wherein at least one of a plurality of digital watermarks is accessible based on access privileges.

24. The device according to claim 19 , wherein said decoder is implemented in one or more of the following: a) search agents; b) viruses; c) archive scanners; and d) software.

25. The device according to claim 19 , wherein said digital watermark comprises one or a plurality of the following: a) title identification; b) unit measure; c) unit price; d) percentage transfer threshold at which liability is incurred to purchaser; e) percent of content transferred; f) authorized purchaser identification; g) seller account identification; h) payment means identification; I) digitally signed information from sender indicating percent of content transferred; j) digitally signed information from receiver indicating percent of content received; or k) combinations thereof.

26. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising: a decoder for decoding at least a portion of the at least one of the digital watermark from the encoded content signal.