Client, Victim of Piracy, Asking for Copy Proof Video Online (including camcorder)

[basspig]

I have a client who produces instructional videos, and due to his fame and demand for these videos, the traditional DVDs have been pirated and he stopped production this year upon discovery.


This summer, his manager talked him into doing the videos again, but this time only releasing them online, through his web site, using heavy copy protection, perhaps something like Artiscope. While this can thwart most digital copying, my client also wants to prevent copying with a camcorder off the screen. I don't believe there is currently any rendering technology that can do this, and Googling the topic found nothing but encrypting against digital copying.


So my question is whether anyone knows of a company that makes a product that causes video to be viewable to the naked eye, but not recordable with a camcorder?


I have been thinking about ways to implement this myself, and my thoughts are along the lines of the methods used to protect checks (microprinting) and currency from copying. The protection results in a severely degraded copy, perhaps revealing a watermark, when the copying resolution is not the same as the original printing.


For a video, something like a 50% checkerboard matrix of pixels with the video and another with reversed video colors, where the video could be viewed normally, but the slight blurring of a camcorder lens would blend the pixels together and result in a grey solid area instead of video. Obviously there is a fundamental flaw with this, in that the naked eye would see a confusing image, even if it could decipher it, but I'm bringing it up just to show you what direction my thinking is taking on this.


If it is possible, and there is a product, my client wants to know where he can get it and how much it will cost. If not, I need a credible source to state that such technology is impossible in the current state of the art and that he's wasting his time with any such efforts.


So what do you embedded video experts think? Is there tech on the horizon that can address camcorder copying AND encryption? Or will this be way too far in the future?

 

[Wesley Byram]

It's been a couple of days without a response to this question, so I'll contribute my 2 cents on the topic.

I'll go out on a limb and propose that a 100% copy proof video system is impossible on a fundamental level. No matter how heavily locked up your content is, at some point, the viewer has to be able to see the video, and anything that can be seen can be copied, though the exact method may vary. The best that can be accomplished is to make it inconvienent enough (and the content boring enough?) that nobody bothers to try.

For example, if you come up with a way to prevent someone from recording off the screen with a camcorder, then one could just try a screen capture program. There are DRM protection schemes that can block such programs, but then one could just tap the computer's display output. HDCP is the DRM scheme to stop people from doing that, but the HDCP master key has already been cracked, so that's not a reliable defense either.

Fighting online piracy via copy protection is a bit like trying to fight cancer. It only takes one determined individual to make the first unencrypted, easily duplicated copy, and then your content is all over the web (assuming that it's popular, at least.) Whatever scheme was intially used to "protect" it becomes irrelevent, no matter how sophisticated it may have been technically.

This is a real problem, but copy protection schemes are an attempt to impose a technical solution on a fundamentally socialogical problem. Nevertheless, there is no shortage of companies that try to sell copy protection software as security theater to content producers.

I honestly don't know what the real solution is. I'm curious about this though:

...the traditional DVDs have been pirated and he stopped production this year upon discovery.

Am I reading this right? He discovered that his product was being pirated, so he took the legit copies off the market, leaving only the pirate copies available? I assume that there are relevant details missing, because on it's face, this decision makes no sense. Were the DVD sales losing money when he stopped them?


All that said, upon thinking about his specific problem, perhaps the solution is not to prevent copying outright, but just discourage it. I'm assuming that people paying to see his streaming videos would have to use a credit card or some identifying information. Maybe you could have a unique watermark generated from this info, and layered over the top of the video as it is playing. If the video stream is copied and distributed, the watermark could be used to identify which customer's account was being used to produce the copy. The watermark would have to always be visible, but translucient, and visible over enough of the frame that simply trying to blur it out would make the resulting copy look rather ugly. If viewers knew that any copy of the stream that they made could be traced to them, they might be discouraged from making or distributing any such copies, knowing that they might get sued.

Of course, one downside is that any would-be pirates could try to use someone else's identity, and an innocent person might get accused of the copyright violation, so maybe this scheme is a bad idea too?

Anyway, that's just one person's thoughts on the matter.

 

[tom_wise]

I too read this with great interest the other day. Knowing if indeed a solution could be found it'd be worth serious money.

But, I think the biggest way the Movie industry and all could put the piracy biz out of biz is to compete with them. Sell your DVD material Cheap. Get the price down so it no longer is profitable to a pirate. Then only a superior copy/ authorized copy would be acceptable.

to the OP, Find out what the pirates are selling his DVD's for and out do them on price!

 

[basspig]

To clarify and answer your question, my client stopped production on all future video products because he discovered that the first volume of his series was on some torrent site.

I realize it is probably impossible to prevent videotaping off the monitor, but I'm going to discuss the matter with a consultant who's an expert witness in copyright litigation. He might have some useful insight into some lesser-known mitigation strategies.

 

[Gary Huff]

To clarify and answer your question, my client stopped production on all future video products because he discovered that the first volume of his series was on some torrent site.

So, to me, it sounds like your client googled the videos, found a torrent site hosting them, and had an immediate, emotional knee-jerk reaction to a reality that everyone now faces until the end of time.

Piracy is a Pandora's Box that was opened a long time ago and will never go away. If your client can't come to terms with that, then perhaps it is best that he refrain from making any more videos.

 

[basspig]

So, to me, it sounds like your client googled the videos, found a torrent site hosting them, and had an immediate, emotional knee-jerk reaction to a reality that everyone now faces until the end of time.

Piracy is a Pandora's Box that was opened a long time ago and will never go away. If your client can't come to terms with that, then perhaps it is best that he refrain from making any more videos.

Yes, that's pretty much it. I'm hoping that by having an expert in the field give him the scoop on what's possible, he will either decide to forge ahead or quit. I hope the former, as his business represents a good chunk of my income.

 

[Gary Huff]

I'm hoping that by having an expert in the field give him the scoop on what's possible, he will either decide to forge ahead or quit. I hope the former, as his business represents a good chunk of my income.

Best of luck to you then.

 

[basspig]

Best of luck to you then.

Thanks, because if I lose this client, I'm effectively out of business.

 

[George Tsai]

There are DRM that requires internet connection to verify you have legal access to the content, there are ones that locks the media to that specific device or computer, dongles was popular with some software for sometime, but each and everyone of them limits legitimate users in ways they can access the content or software and therefore becomes an annoyance.

DRM is a double edged sword. The more protection you put on a desired video, music, software, and the like the more likely someone will hack and distribute copies of it. One reason is that it's a challenge to hackers, and hackers always likes a good challenge. But also because often times the more DRM protection you impose the more you limit the legitimate viewers and users of your content.

For example, if buy an audio CD, why would you want to also buy the MP3 so you can listen to it on your MP3 Player or phone? Or you bought the bluray of a movie but want to watch it on your mobile device sometime. While copyright laws clearly defines making such copies to MP3 or mobile device as infringement, it is easy to see why there are copies of just about everything available online for download. If you make your content hard to access people will pirate it to make it easier, where as if you allow your content to be easily accessed more people will purchase your content if they see value befitting it. Louis CK is a great example of this.


There are probably people who don't mind all the DRM stuff(I personally don't know any of them), some don't like it but deal with it, and then there are people like me who will refuse to purchase anything that heavily imposes DRM to their content.

The only real success in the battle against piracy is online MMORPG, where people have to pay for an account to get onto servers to interact with other people. However the games themselves still gets pirated, some people just play the single player modes, or for some games private servers exists out there that people with pirated software can play on.


On the flip side tho, how does your client know he is losing money over the pirated copies? Those who can't afford it wouldn't have bought it to begin with. A lot of people likes to try before they buy. Or perhaps attracted people that wouldn't have known about it before. I can say for myself that I have come across pirated music and videos posted online that I would have never known about anywhere else, and bought the music or movie as a result because I liked it.

like Gary said, "If your client can't come to terms with that", he is in the wrong business.