Optical DNA based on non-deterministic errors

1. A system that facilitates authentication of an optical media instance, the system comprising:

a receiving component that obtains information read from the optical media instance, the information comprising (1) a set of signatures associated with the optical media instance, and (2) non-deterministic error data associated with the optical media instance;

a verification component that:

selects an appropriate signature from the set of signatures based upon an identifier associated with a host optical media reader, and

verifies authenticity of the optical media instance by comparing the appropriate signature to the non-deterministic error data; and

a processor that executes the receiving component and the verification component.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the verification component employs a public key to decrypt the appropriate signature, the public key relating to an issuer associated with the host optical media reader.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a notification component executed by the processor, wherein the notification component transmits a notification that the optical media instance is not authentic when an error fingerprint of the appropriate signature does not match the non-deterministic error data.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the appropriate signature identifies encoded positions of individual non-deterministic errors, and

the non-deterministic error data identifies in-field error positions that are extracted by the host optical media reader from the optical media instance.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the verification component compares the encoded positions to the in-field error positions to determine whether the optical media instance is authentic.

6. The system of claim 1 , embodied in the host optical media reader.

7. A method implemented by a computing device for authentication of an optical media instance, the method comprising performing acts by the computing device, the acts comprising:

obtaining information read from the optical media instance, the information comprising (1) a set of signatures associated with the optical media instance and (2) non-deterministic error data associated with the optical media instance;

selecting an appropriate signature from the set of signatures based upon an identifier associated with a host optical media reader; and

verifying authenticity of the optical media instance by comparing the appropriate signature to the non-deterministic error data.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the comparing comprises determining whether an error fingerprint of the appropriate signature matches the non-deterministic error data.

9. The method of claim 8 , the acts further comprising:

when the error fingerprint does not match the non-deterministic error data, providing a notification that the optical media instance is not authentic.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the comparing comprises comparing a first set of errors identified by the error fingerprint and a second set of errors identified in-field on the optical media instance by the host optical media reader.

11. The method of claim 7 , the acts further comprising:

causing the host optical media reader to read a specific portion of the optical media instance multiple times, and

detecting non-deterministic errors in the specific portion to obtain the non-deterministic error data.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein detecting the non-deterministic errors comprises classifying individual errors on the optical media instance as deterministic or non-deterministic based on numbers of times that the individual errors are detected over the multiple times that the specific portion is read.

13. A processor-readable memory device or storage device storing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform acts comprising:

obtaining information read from an optical media instance, the information comprising (1) a set of signatures associated with the optical media instance and (2) non-deterministic error data associated with the optical media instance;

selecting an appropriate signature from the set of signatures based upon an identifier associated with an optical media player; and

verifying authenticity of the optical media instance by comparing the appropriate signature to the non-deterministic error data.

14. The processor-readable memory device or storage device of claim 13 , wherein the appropriate signature comprises a fingerprint identifying non-deterministic errors and a cryptographic signature applied to the fingerprint.

15. The processor-readable memory device or storage device of claim 14 , wherein the fingerprint comprises compressed error positions of the non-deterministic errors and the acts further comprise decompressing the compressed error positions to obtain uncompressed error positions used for the comparing.

16. The processor-readable memory device or storage device of claim 14 , wherein the acts further comprise decrypting the cryptographic signature to verify that the cryptographic signature originated from a valid entity.

17. The processor-readable memory device or storage device of claim 13 , wherein the identifier is associated with a model of the optical media player and the set of signatures includes individual signatures for other models of optical media players.

18. The processor-readable memory device or storage device of claim 13 , wherein the identifier is associated with a manufacturer of the optical media player and the set of signatures includes individual signatures for other manufacturers of optical media players.

19. The processor-readable memory device or storage device of claim 13 , wherein the optical media instance is a compact disc or a digital versatile disc.

20. The processor-readable memory device or storage device of claim 13 , embodied in the optical media player, the optical media player comprising the processor.