While steganography may be part of a new kinder, gentler copy-control policy for many content producers, I have my doubts as to whether it will be very effectiv

While steganography may be part of a new kinder, gentler copy-control policy for many content producers, I have my doubts as to whether it will be very effective, for a few reasons. Even if you assume that the techniques are not discovered before distribution, this doesn't actually impeded copying; it just helps you determine the original source. At that point, you are again faced with an enforcement problem. It's already quite possible to determine the source of pirated files using bittorrent, but even with thousands of lawsuits filed, use is not noticeably diminished. But steganographic source determination is significantly weaker than bittorrent as far as enforcement and chilling effects go. With bittorrent, if you can make the expected cost of a lawsuit high enough to the users, you might make a dent in the wholescale copying of content. With steganographic techniques, only the original user is at risk. As soon as a single copy is out there, the rest of the sharers take no additional risk in spreading it far and wide.