The effects of modern technology could be a mixture of bile and honey. It is bile if technology is affecting you negatively; then honey, if it is impacting your life positively. The creators and pirates of video contents are experiencing both.
Piracy is affecting content creators ranging from audio, text, video, software, and others. It is a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabrics of some industries, maybe the entertainment industry.
This issue have always spurred relevant stakeholders to gather over the years to discuss the way forward towards tackling the problem which has ripped off economic benefits. Alas, there seem not be any iota of improvement.
Almost everybody is affected by piracy; the artists, writers, authors, movie producers, music producers, cinematographers, software developers and others are all concerned.
Moreover, content creators are beginning to get worn out considering the level at which some of their works have been pirated, causing all forms of infringement on the Nigerian Copyright Law.
The essence of this law is to offer complete protection, preservation and reservation to the work of creators. There is little or no compliance with these laws, a situation which has prompted affected parties to call for stiffer punishment for violators.
Several forms of contents are pirated, but the focus of this piece is video content because it commands lots of viewership, attracting massive attention. As funny as it may sound, some people already watched those new movies you pay to see at the cinema.
That same film may have also been sold to other millions of people at a ridiculous price by pirates. You could imagine the revenue loss to the brains behind those works and the industry at large.
Vanguard reported in 2014, quoting Professor of Political Economy and Management Expert, Pat Utomi that Nigeria could be losing over $2billion to piracy every year.
Now, a critical look at this issue triggers a particular thought in one’s mind, and that if technology is playing any significant role in addressing or exacerbating the problem of piracy of video content.
There are two dimensions to this subject, one, technology has contributed in worsening the issue due to the unlimited access to digital resources; two, that same technology can also be used to curb piracy rate if proper models are implemented efficiently.
As a fact, most torrent websites today now get tons of traffic from pirates who are in always in search of movies and video contents without any desire to pay for it. Torrent websites mainly allow users to download copyrighted materials such as TV shows, movies, software, and games.
These sites are like unauthorized distribution channels for copyrighted files, causing loss of revenue to original content creators. This is one of the reasons the US government often ban torrent websites because they are also affected.
Meanwhile, technology still turns off the hands of piracy if anti-piracy models are implemented. Some technologies such as Infrared Beams, Night-Vision Goggles, to Watermarks have been used over the years to movie recording in theatres, but some pirates still find their way to make these efforts less effective.
Watermarks technology, for instance, helps to identify the source of the pirated content, but it does not prevent the recording or copying and spreading of video content. The only advantage is that the content creator will be able to trace, investigate and indict the perpetrator.
Sadly, hackers have also gotten into this game and even rendered the Watermarks technology useless by adding a fake watermark that would throw the investigators off point. That is to say, even with the Watermark technology, hackers still have the brainpower to manipulate the technology.
A practical example of what it means to manipulate the Watermark technology happened some years ago when a copy of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” an American adventure comedy-drama was leaked with the watermark “Property of Ellen Degeneres” across the screen. This watermark indicates simply that the copy must have come from somebody who has access to the show’s production area.
After series of investigations, it was discovered that the watermark had been added by hackers to throw authorities off their investigation, a scheme that worked perfectly.
That is exactly how sophisticated hackers can be. Be it as it may, a movie producer should be able to safeguard the original disk up to the point of showing in a cinema; this is where most of the recording takes place.
There is a new technology called “Ambient Lighting Solution” that could help reduce this act of piracy at the cinema. This solution was recommended by Philips Lighting, a global market leader with recognized expertise in the development, manufacturing & application of innovative (LED) lighting solutions.
The implementation of the Ambient Lighting Solution is not cumbersome as it may sound. This anti-piracy tool requires someone to shine light on the viewers at the cinema from an angle, at a particular light frequency. The lighting will cause damages and degrades the quality of video recording to the point that it becomes completely unwatchable.
“The solution proposed here is to shine visible light from an (additional) light source with a predetermined modulation frequency at the cinema screen while the movie plays,” the patent application reads.
“When the frequency is chosen well, a camera will not be able to properly film the content, because the light source runs out of sync with the camera resulting in stripes running through the movie content.”
Aside from this technology, there is the standard Digital Right Management (DRM), another efficient way to protect your video contents from pirates. Nobody is allowed to download your videos unless such person has the security key to access the content because it the DRM technology controls the usage, alteration, and distribution of copyrighted works, as well as systems within devices that implement these policies.
One of the leaders that provide the DRM technology is VdoCipher; they deliver robust security solution at every stage of video delivery. Some of the E-learning platforms across the globe try to use this service to protect their video content especially the premium ones.
The crux of the matter remains most of the video contents are prone to piracy considering the myriads of tech hacks, plugins, and downloaders, however that does not mean one should not play its role in securing and preventing video contents from piracy.
The combination of Watermark technology, encryption models, Ambient Lighting Solution and DRM technology piracy of video contents could be curbed to a significant extent.
