ARTSY : A Reproduction Transaction System

Abstract: A Transaction Reproduction System (ARTSY) is a distributed system that enables secure transactions and reproductions of digital content over an insecure network. A field of application is reproductions of visual arts: A print workshop could for example use ARTSY to print a digital image that is located at a remote museum. The purpose of this master thesis project was to propose a specification for ARTSY and to show that it is technically feasible to implement it. An analysis of the security threats in the ARTSY context was performed and a security model was developed. The security model was approved by a leading computer security expert. The security mechanisms that were chosen for the model were: Asymmetric cryptology, digital signatures, symmetric cryptology and a public key registry. A Software Requirements Specification was developed. It contains extra directives for image reproduction systems but it is possible to use it for an arbitrary type of reproduction system. A prototype of ARTSY was implemented using the Java programming language. The prototype uses XML to manage information and Java RMI to enable remote communication between its components. It was built as a platform independent system and it has been tested and proven to be operational on the Sun Solaris platform as well as the Win32 platform.