ReadWriteWeb
- November 12, 2009
DRM for Real-Time Media: Justin.tv Now Protecting Video Streams With Digital Fingerprinting
This week, Justin.tv is rolling out new measures to protect copyrighted live video streams from being pirated on their site. The technology the company is using will allow them to remove pirate channels without having to issue a takedown notice first.
Using technology from Vobile, an online video publishing company, Justin.tv partners (including FOX), will be able to use VideoDNA™ “fingerprinting” technology to watermark their digital content. If the content is spotted elsewhere on the site, Justin.tv will automatically remove the infringing channel. Think of it as DRM for real-time, streaming media.
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These measures come in the wake of Justin.tv’s legal and PR woes last year, when television broadcasters found that the site was being used to illegally redistribute their channels – especially sports and pay-per-view events – online. At that time, the site claimed traffic greater than Hulu’s; however having to uphold stricter piracy standards has hurt those stats, too.
“This has been part of our long-term effort to work with copyright holders… How can we help them automate the process of removing content?” said CEO Michael Seibel in a recent interview with NewTeeVee.
Vobile’s solution, VideoDNA, is a compact, unique digital signature, a.k.a. a fingerprint, that can be attached to online video without changing the source content. To identify an unknown video, its fingerprint is found and matched against the entries in the reference database, known as the Vobile DNA Database. If a match is found, the querying application is provided with comprehensive data on the match. The VideoTracker component of this solution is intended specifically for content creators and has reportedly been adopted by many major Hollywood studios.
Using this huge library of fingerprints, Justin.tv has worked with publishers to integrate digital fingerprinting with live, streaming media. It’s a complicated solution requiring the proactive responsibility of the copyright holders.
Check out NewTeeVee’s video interview with Seibel below, and let us know in the comments what you think of the new measures for copyright protection of live, streaming media.
