Submitted via IRC for Fnord666
Watermarking has long been one of the tools used to track sources of pirated content so with the growth of live content streaming, it's becoming more important than ever. However, while broadcasters can use these marks to shut down infringing streams in a live situation, pirates are reportedly able to remove them using devices readily available on eBay.
[...] Since pirate streams are often captured from consumer decoders, a watermark denoting which subscriber account is being used can be embedded into the video. Once the mark is identified and matched with a customer device, the stream can be cut off at its source by the broadcaster. While it is possible to remove these codes, doing so isn’t always straightforward. Systems can place the watermark in any place at any time, meaning that some always slip through the net. However, others are more easily dealt with, as a report from security company Irdeto reveals.
“So-called ‘HashCode removal tools’ work in near real-time to strip away any kind of visual marks from a video feed. This ranges from unique fingerprints right down to the broadcaster’s on-screen logo that’s so familiar on many channels, both helping pirates to cover their tracks,” the company explains.
“These tools are so smart, they take a sample of the surrounding pixels and re-use them to replace the visual marks, so the viewer of the pirate stream barely notices any disturbance in the picture.”
Source: https://torrentfreak.com/live-tv-piracy-watermarking-defeated-by-devices-sold-on-ebay-180624/
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @03:43AM
This doesn’t help when content comes from someone else’s hijacked account. Shut down the account and the pirate moves on to another. You can’t identify the pirate like this.
I doubt this is really that much a problem for big time pirates. With a bunch of accounts you can diff the streams to find and squash the watermarks. No need to watch the video looking for hidden anomalies.