Patent ID: 7818577

Claim:
An apparatus for material identification, comprising: a code generator configured to generate an authorization code; a watermark generator configured to generate a watermark and insert said watermark into an item of information material; said watermark generator configured to include the authorization code in said watermark; a signature generator configured to derive a signature from the item of information material, the signature being different from the watermark and derived from data characteristics of an original copy of the information material, and the signature including a measurable characteristic indicative of pixel characteristics or audio characteristics of the original copy of said item of information material; a database processor configured to store the authorization code and the signature in a database, and configured to make the stored signature available from the database for subsequent comparison to a copy of the item of information material wherein the information material is identifiable by comparison of a subsequent signature derived from the copy of the item of information with the signature stored in the database, when the authorization code is extracted from the watermark, the authorization code is indicative of whether the information material may be duplicated, and the watermark inserted on the item of information material and the signature communicated from the database processor are both used for said material identification.