Security Feature | Content Piracy
be shared quickly and openly among friends on social networking sites. The spread of illegal content through social networks is not confined to a criminal element of consumers.
Many people who find links to live sports broadcasts on social media are not aware that the content is illegally hosted – an understandable mistake given the sophistication of embedded video players and even advertising on illegal sites, all of which leads to a false sense of security for the viewer.
The Piracy Continuum™
Although there are legal online offers, consumers of content demand more than ever when it comes to sports broadcasts. Consumers will take any steps necessary to access content – including visiting illegal sites. Content owners, content distributors and security vendors have traditionally characterised digital “pirates” as a single malicious group with ill intentions. However, with recent developments in consumption habits this is simply not true.
Piracy is not a single behavior, but rather a continuum of behaviors. Within the Piracy Continuum™, there are six distinct groups.
What drives consumers to piracy?
Piracy is easier than ever and although some pirates steal content for commercial gain, other individuals on the Piracy Continuum™ are driven to obtain illegal content through frustration. Looking at piracy from a different perspective can teach content owners more about their customers. As piracy is not a uniform activity, but a range of behaviours along a continuum, not all pirates illegally download content for criminal purposes. For example, a customer in the UAE may be illegally streaming a show from the US due to the time zone difference - perhaps driven to consume the content from frustration.
Preventing Piracy The sophistication of piracy requires
1. Create two watermark copies
2. Interleave them to create unique versions
3. Trace pirated content to individuals
Irdeto session based watermarking technology
increasingly powerful countermeasures. Effectively tagging content is a crucial step for those looking to screen sports content online, with content watermarking allowing broadcasters to embed unique invisible data in audio and video that can be used to trace individuals who are illegally redistributing content in real time. Once the source of the pirated content is identified, it can be shut down and further action considered against the pirate.
In addition, there is a need to locate the sites where stolen content is hosted, a task that has grown more complicated in recent years due to the proliferation hosting and indexing websites that offer illegal video. Having the knowledge to find these sites and remove content and links to live streams is a major plus point for content owners and broadcasters looking to secure their investment.
Pricing and discoverability are two of the key building blocks of piracy – if broadcasters address these “sells” then they begin to reduce the attraction of illegal content. This is only half of the battle, however. Security techniques such as watermarking are a boon to broadcasters,
Discouraging Piracy
Operators must take three important steps into account when working to reduce piracy:
• Affordable and accessible content: good pricing and multiscreen capabilities to boost discoverability
• Deterrence: aim for a capability to trace and pull down pirated content
• Win the arms race: ensure that technology is up to date and easily renewed
improving content protection and reassuring content owners.
Most importantly, broadcasters must understand the motivations of those involved in piracy – be they consumers or hackers – and ensure that they are addressing these on a business level with countermeasures or better content availability as appropriate.
ibeconnects.com | May/June 2013
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