Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

E-commerce of digital items and the problem of item validation: introducing the concept of reversible degradation

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Applicable Algebra in Engineering, Communication and Computing Aims and scope

Abstract

Fair exchange protocols have been widely studied since their proposal, but are still not implemented on most e-commerce transactions available. For several types of digital items (e-goods), the current e-commerce business model fails to provide fairness to customers. The item validation problem is a critical step in fair exchange, and is yet to receive the proper attention from researchers. We believe these issues should be addressed in a comprehensive and integrated fashion before fair exchange protocols can be effectively deployed in the marketplace. In this work, we contextualize how the current model for buying and selling digital items fails, by overlooking the subtleties of the item validation problem, to provide guarantees of a successful transaction outcome to customers—thus being unfair by design. We also introduce the concept of Reversible Degradation, a method for enhancing buy–sell transactions concerning digital items that inherently includes the item validation step in the purchase protocol in order to tackle the discussed problems. In this paper we further explore the concept of reversible degradation (Piva and Dahab in Proceedings of international conference on security and cryptography (SECRYPT). SciTePress Digital Library, 2011) and propose a deliverable instantiation based on systematic error correction codes, suitable for multimedia content. We describe our technique in detail and provide methods for key generation, degradation and recovery, as well as a discussion about efficiency, security and flexibility. We also present and discuss experimental data, and exemplify how the technique can be useful for enabling item validation and dispute resolution in some application scenarios.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.

Notes

  1. In fact, “no efficient method (i.e., without TTP interaction) is known to make arbitrary goods strongly generatable” [40].

  2. Even though the proposed technique can be implemented with symbols of different sizes, it should be taken into account that the symbol size affects not only the number of required encoding/decoding operations, but also the efficiency of the technique as a whole—larger symbols mean more expensive algebraic operations.

References

  1. Alaraj, A., Munro, M.: An e-commerce fair exchange protocol for exchanging digital products and payments. In: Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Digital Information Management (ICDIM), vol. 1, pp. 248–253. IEEE Computer Society (2007)

  2. Amazon Legal Department: Amazon MP3 Music Service: Terms of use (2005). www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200154280&#content

  3. Asokan, A.: Fairness in electronic commerce. Ph.D. thesis, University of Waterloo (1998)

  4. Asokan, N., Janson, P., Steiner, M., Waidner, M.: The state of the art in electronic payment systems. Computer 30, 28–35 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Asokan, N., Shoup, V., Waidner, M.: Optimistic fair exchange of digital signatures. IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun. 18, 593–610(1999)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ateniese, G.: Verifiable encryption of digital signatures and applications. ACM Trans. Inf. Syst. Secur. (TISSEC) 7, 1–20 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Avoine, G., Vaudenay, S.: Optimistic fair exchange based on publicly verifiable secret sharing. In: Information Security and Privacy, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 3108, pp. 74–85. Springer (2004)

  8. Bottoni, A., Dini, G., Stabell-Kulø, T.: A methodology for verification of digital items in fair exchange protocols with active trustee. Electron. Commer. Res. 7, 143–164 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Gartner, F.C., Pagnia, H., Vogt, H.: Approaching a formal definition of fairness in electronic commerce. In: Proceedings of 18th IEEE Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems (SRDS), pp. 354–359. IEEE Computer Society (1999)

  10. Goppa, V.D.: A new class of linear correcting codes. Probl. Inf. Transm. 6, 207–212 (1970)

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  11. Hathaway, S.: Reed–Solomon Python extension module (2005). http://hathawaymix.org/Software/ReedSolomon/. Online; accessed 19 Feb 2013

  12. Kiayias, A., Yung, M.: Cryptographic hardness based on the decoding of Reed–Solomon codes. Trans. Inf. Theory 54, 2752–2769 (2008)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  13. Kremer, S., Markowitch, O., Zhou, J.: An intensive survey of fair non-repudiation protocols. Comput. Commun. 25, 1606–1621 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Kwong, S.: An algorithm for removable visible watermarking. Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol. 16, 129–133 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Lacoste, G., Pfitzmann, B., Steiner, M., Waidner, M.: SEMPER—secure electronic marketplace for Europe. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS), vol. 1854. Springer (2000)

  16. Lian, S.: Multimedia Content Encryption: Techniques and Applications. Auerbach Publications, Boston, MA (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Loytynoja, M., Cvejic, N., Seppanen, T.: Audio protection with removable watermarking. In: Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Information, Communications and Signal Processing, pp. 1–4. IEEE Computer Society (2007)

  18. Markowitch, O., Roggeman, Y.: Probabilistic non-repudiation without trusted third party. In: Proceedings of 2nd Conference on Security in Communication Network (1999)

  19. McEliece, R.J.: A public-key cryptosystem based on algebraic coding theory. Technical report, Deep Space Network Progress—Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA (1978)

  20. Minder, L.: Cryptography based on error correcting codes. Ph.D. thesis, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) (2007)

  21. Nenadic, A., Zhang, N., Barton, S.: FIDES—a middleware e-commerce security solution. In: Proceedings of 3rd European Conference on Information Warfare and Security (ECIW), pp. 295–304 (2004)

  22. Nenadic, A., Zhang, N., Shi, Q., Goble, C.: DSA-based verifiable and recoverable encryption of signatures and its application in certified e-goods delivery. In: Proceedings of International Conference on e-Technology, e-Commerce and e-Service (EEE), pp. 94–99. IEEE Computer Society (2005)

  23. O’Mahony, D., Tewari, H., Peirce, M.: Electronic Payment Systems. Artech House, Inc., Boston, MA (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Pagnia, H., Gartner, F.C.: On the impossibility of fair exchange without a trusted third party. Technical report, Department of Computer Science—Darmstadt University of Technology (1999)

  25. Pagnia, H., Vogt, H., Gartner, F.: Fair exchange. Comput. J. 46, 55–75 (2003)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  26. Piva, F.R.: Verificação formal de protocolos de trocas justas utilizando o método de espaços de fitas. Master’s thesis, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) (2009)

  27. Piva, F.R., Dahab, R.: E-commerce and fair exchange: the problem of item validation. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Security and Cryptography (SECRYPT). SciTePress Digital Library (2011)

  28. Piva, F.R., Monteiro, J.R.M., Dahab, R.: Strand spaces and fair exchange: more on how to trace attacks and security problems. In: Anais do VII SBSeg, Simpósio Brasileiro em Segurança da Informação e de Sistemas Computacionais (2007)

  29. Piva, F.R., Monteiro, J.R.M., Dahab, R.: Regarding timeliness in the context of fair exchange. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Network and Service Security (N2S), pp. 1–6. IEEE Computer Society (2009)

  30. Piva, F.R., Monteiro, J.R.M., Devegili, A.J., Dahab, R.: Applying strand spaces to certified delivery proofs. In: VI Simpósio Brasileiro em Segurança da Informação e de Sistemas Computacionais (SBSeg) (2006)

  31. Ray, I.: An anonymous fair exchange e-commerce protocol. In: Proceedings of 15th International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium, pp. 1790–1797. IEEE Computer Society (2000)

  32. Ray, I.: Fair exchange in e-commerce. In: Special Interest Group on Electronic Commerce (SIGecom), vol. 3, pp. 9–17. ACM (2002)

  33. Ray, I., Ray, I.: An optimistic fair exchange e-commerce protocol with automated dispute resolution. In: Proceedings of First International Conference on Electronic Commerce and Web Technologies, pp. 84–93. Springer (2000)

  34. Reed, I.S., Solomon, G.: Polynomial codes over certain finite fields. SIAM J. Appl. Math. 8, 300–304 (1960)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  35. Shlien, S.: Guide to MPEG-1 audio standard. Trans. Broadcast. 40, 206–218 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Sugiyama, Y., Kasahara, M., Hirasawa, S., Namekawa, T.: An erasures-and-errors decoding algorithm for Goppa codes. Trans. Inf. Theory 22, 238–241 (1976)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  37. Sun, Y., Gu, L., Qing, S., Zheng, S., Yang, Y., Sun, Y.: New optimistic fair exchange protocol based on short signature. In: Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Communication Software and Networks (ICCSN), pp. 99–104. IEEE Computer Society (2010)

  38. Thayer, F.J., Herzog, J.C., Guttman, J.D.: Strand spaces: proving security protocols correct. J. Comput. Secur. 7, 191–230 (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Valimaki, M., Oksanen, V.: DRM interoperability and intellectual property policy in europe. Eur. Intellect. Prop. Rev. 26, 562–568 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  40. Vogt, H.: Asynchronous optimistic fair exchange based on revocable items. In: Financial Cryptography, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 2742, pp. 208–222. Springer (2003)

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank the financial support of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). We also thank the reviewers for their careful reading and valuable remarks. Finally, the first author would like to thank the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED) for hosting him during his leave from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Computing, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil

    Fabio Piva & Ricardo Dahab

Authors
  1. Fabio Piva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ricardo Dahab
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fabio Piva.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (zip 103663 KB)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Piva, F., Dahab, R. E-commerce of digital items and the problem of item validation: introducing the concept of reversible degradation. AAECC 24, 277–308 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00200-013-0197-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00200-013-0197-9

Keywords