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

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

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?

 

[Greg_R]

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?

There are video (invisible) watermarking option as well as methods to embed a watermark into the audio track. These are methods to prove copyright infringement... not render a copy unusable. However, I think you're asking for a way to cause 'garbage' to be recorded? I know of nothing that will prevent analog copying (e.g. VGA cable output, camcorder recording the screen, etc.).

In the far future, I can see "Extreme" refresh rates that would have 1 frame of security material. All camcorders would detect the frame and refuse to record. This would protect the next HD++ formats but not prevent piracy of old formats. Of course, there would still be analog work-arounds (how long did it take for Bluray to be cracked?).

Netflix and others use MS Silverlight to prevent local copying of streamed content.

 

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

At this point, I think my client has lost interest in continuing with Part 3 of what was to be a 4-part series of instructional videos for advanced Jazz musicians. We were supposed to be booking a shooting in New York City for this month. I don't think he or his manager liked the answers I related. There goes my last client. I'll be putting my cameras up for sale probably in November, as that will be my only income for paying the utility bills and the credit card bills for the repairs to my house all summer. Oh well, I've lived long enough I guess.