Patent ID: 7681039

Claim:
A method facilitating the protection of digital goods, the method comprising: generating a plurality of watermark detection keys, each including a corresponding watermark carrier; marking a digital good with at least one watermark corresponding to the watermark detection keys, wherein the watermark carriers are not embedded in the digital good during marking with the watermark, wherein, when the watermark is modified or removed from the digital good using one or more of the watermark detection keys, one or more of the watermark carriers corresponding to the one or more watermark detection keys used to modify or remove the watermark are detected from examination of in the digital good; distributing the digital good as a distributed digital good; determining that the watermark in the distributed digital good has been modified or removed; and identifying, by a detector implemented by a processor executing computer-executable instructions stored in computer-readable storage media, at least one of the watermark carriers by examination of the distributed digital good.