New technology to block camcorder pirates

NEWS

As one of the key architects of the discontinued Divx DVD system, Robert Schumann knows first hand how hard it can be to sell copyright protection to the masses. Still, some three years after Circuit City pulled financial support for the limited-use DVD technology he helped build, Schumann and a group of former Divx engineers are hoping for a second act in Hollywood with the advent of digital cinema. Cinea, the company Schumann co-founded after Divx folded in 1999, is close to unveiling a beta for its Cosmos digital cinema security system that will help movie distributors keep track of how their products are used while protecting them from piracy. Meanwhile Cinea this week scored a $2m grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Advanced Technology Program to develop a system that it claims will stop audience members from videotaping digital movies off theater screens. The company "will modify the timing and modulation of the light used to create the displayed image such that frame-based capture by recording devices is distorted," according to an abstract for the winning NIST grant application. "Any copies made from these devices will show the disruptive pattern." In an interview, Schumann compared the process with distortions that appear in videotaped images of computer screens, which may show lines that are invisible to the naked eye. Rather than produce accidental disturbances, he said, Cinea plans to create specific disturbances that it can control. "Machines see the world more closely to reality than humans do. In the case of computer screens, if you track the energy from a phosphor coating (a light-emitting chemical used in cathode-ray tubes), you find that it begins with a strong burst followed by a period of decay and then another burst, and so on. But people see it as a single intensity," Schumann said. Cinea, a privately held company with backing from venture capital firm Monumental Venture Partners, expects to have a working prototype within two years. It is partnering with Sarnoff, which will conduct research on image manipulation and analyze distortion and possible countermeasures. The University of Southern California's Entertainment Technology Center in Los Angeles will evaluate the system in testing with human subjects. "There's a difference in the way a camcorder and the human eye see the world," Schumann said. "We've figured out some ways to exploit that. The trick is to make sure there is no negative impact on the viewing experience for the audience." The camcorder-jamming project comes as directors, including "Star Wars" legend George Lucas, are creating movies designed for digital projection that aim to provide sharper and more astounding visual effects than traditional film. But the technology has raised concerns that audience members might eventually create high-quality copies of movies using handheld video cameras smuggled into theatres. The movie industry already blames such techniques for rampant piracy of first-run films, which frequently appear in video on the streets following preview screenings and premieres, although the quality is usually low. According to Cinea's grant abstract, the motion picture industry loses some $3 billion a year due to piracy, including the sale of illegal copies made using camcorders in theatres. The company predicted that its efforts could cut movie piracy by 50 percent. That number may be high. Leaks from theaters frequently involve copies that are created in cooperation with insiders, rather than footage shot surreptitiously from the fifth row. Schumann conceded that the 50 percent number is not based on thorough market research but is simply "our own estimate." In tackling anti-piracy technology, Cinea is entering an arena that is littered with failure. The movie and music industries have sought for years to thwart piracy by developing anti-copying technology, an effort that has been redoubled with the emergence of digital media offering consumers the opportunity to make countless perfect copies from one original and to distribute them effortlessly over the Internet. Most of those attempts have focused on encrypting or walling off the underlying data to make it unintelligible or inaccessible to would-be copiers. Such solutions have also quickly been broken. The movie studios have been in search of a new DVD encryption scheme since the industry standard, known as CSS, was cracked by Linux programmers in 1999. The recording industry, meanwhile, was stymied last year in its bid to create a music copy protection system when academic researchers defeated a proposed watermarking standard. Other encryption schemes, including one from Microsoft, have also been compromised. From a business perspective, companies pursuing digital rights management (DRM) have hardly fared better. The once-hot niche has been winnowed by bankruptcies and retrenchment. In the latest meltdown, online music technology provider Liquid Audio has been split by shareholder dissension as some investors seek to shut the company down and get their hands on millions in dwindling cash reserves. Others that have run into trouble include Preview Systems, Intertrust and Reciprocal. The body count hasn't deterred Schumann, however. "Each company in this space has its own issues and its own reasons for succeeding or failing," he said. He added that Cinea's strategy, which focuses on business-to-business rather than consumer products, puts it in a very different realm in the DRM market. Schumann knows the sting of failure, having poured five years into the development of Divx only to see its primary backer and distributor, Circuit City, pull out. Divx was a limited-use version of DVD that allowed viewers access to movies for 48 hours after the initial viewing period. After that, a customer was required to pay additional fees to view it again. Circuit City eventually claimed some 200,000 Divx player sales, according to Cinea's Web site. Digital Video Express, a joint venture formed to market Divx, had just begun to sign up major manufacturers including Thomson Electronics and Kenwood when its majority partner threw in the towel. After its short run, Divx became the butt of jokes among the computer cognoscenti, where copy protection schemes rank just above Microsoft's reputation for robust security on the laughability scale. Underground programmers lampooned the technology in naming a popular video codec used to trade pirated video files after it. Divx;-) has since wiped the smirk off its face as its developers seek to turn the technology to legitimate uses under the auspices of digital video company DivXNetworks. Schumann, who said he was serving on the Digital Video Express engineering team as Director of Strategic Technologies when the joint venture folded, laughed at the mention of the parody. But he brushed off criticism of the device as uninformed. "The customers in the Divx days who used the system loved it," he said. "It created a better way to rent videos. I was sad to see it shut down. From my perspective, it was a great technology that didn't get great market support."

See the Digital Rights News Section for the latest on DVD-Ram, DVD-RW, zoning and copy protection. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the ZDNet news forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

@Jack, > Works really well for thieves.... Nice attempt to deflect the argument by tossing in a point that's totally irrelevant, even it were...

1 hour ago by BrownieBoy on AMD Ultrathins to challenge Intel Ultrabooks

Make that 13 people now - I got refused today at Manchester airport. I thought I was up to date on this legislation - I knew of the EU ruling from...

4 hours ago by bootlegger on UK airport body scans will not be opt out

Don't forget to check out apps like GoodReader or SlideShark either, they're indispensible for people on the go in presentation situations. Best...

7 hours ago by tinycg on Four top iPad apps for people on the move

Well it seems there is something a number of us agree on. Why is the Ubuntu Unity launcher so ugly? I thought perhaps it was something to do with...

11 hours ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Duplicate comments are not made intentionally. Its very good to know that now you are keeping check on this problem because sometimes a commenter...

21 hours ago by Freebies202 on Microsoft fixes blog comments, speeds up blogs with open source

"the very significant number of users" and "many (most) of us" - you have no evidence for these statements. It is a fact that most users are saying...

1 day ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Another grammar faux pas is the improper use of "you". When sitting down down in a restaurant, for example, I get cringe when the waitress...

1 day ago by Marg Menzies Harrison via Facebook on 10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid

And NOW, folks, for Canonical's next trick... Kubuntu is late. Here's a pencil. Draw your own conclusions. cf.:...

1 day ago by zdnetukuser on Linux Minterface

@kevinmchapman. The discussion here reflects the very significant number of users who really do like the traditional menu system and who wish to...

1 day ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Er, no... It is an efficient means of finding the application/file/setting you need in one place. The icons are a simply a fallback for when you...

1 day ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Isn't the provision of a text based search an admission by the developers that the mass of icons approach does not work? I don't need to use a...

1 day ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

"Unity and GNOME 3 both abandon the old text-based cascading menus in favour of a graphical icon-driven system." Point truly missed. Both use a...

2 days ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

whs001 - Thank you, I'm glad you liked the article. I absolutely agree with you on your first point. I should perhaps have made it clearer that...

2 days ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

If we allow corporate interest to dictate the way our government circumvents due process against foreign entities then we should accept the same...

2 days ago by Dennis Nilsson via Facebook on ACTA stumbles in Germany

I totally dislike pirating of works, I fear that artists will be deterred from creating works if they think that they are going to get ripped off....

2 days ago by GHar123 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

How dare film makers, artists or anybody that invests in creativity stop us pirating their works for free. I want to be able to walk into my local...

2 days ago by JCB33 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

@GrueMaster. I prefer horses for courses rather than one size fits all. I, and I suspect most other computer users, do not really wish to have...

2 days ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

The product that scares me every time I have to use it is the Office 2007 version of Excel. The first bug that I found was applying the median...

2 days ago by greycynic on Ten flawed products that derail productivity

Nice review and very informative. One thing I'd like to add (in reply to whs001's 1st question), the main reason to have the same interface from...

2 days ago by GrueMaster on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

I'be been using Mint 12 since the RC came out, and I am far more happy with the Cinnamon, the Mate, and, yes (with extensions), theGnome 3...

2 days ago by Frederick Wrigley via Facebook on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

New technology to block camcorder pirates

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Heart of England NHS begins massive digitisation plan

Hard-drive woes hit PC shipments in fourth quarter

Post your comment

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Heart of England NHS begins massive digitisation plan

Hard-drive woes hit PC shipments in fourth quarter

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

PHP Web Developer - html, css, javascript

Java Developer, Online Gaming, London

Quant Dev, Hedge Fund, FX, Excel VBA

Inside ZDNet UK

A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

2012 Predictions: VCE FastPath, VI SAN Probe & Hadoop

BlackBerry Bold 9790

Make faster, smarter decisions using BI

Ten factors that make Ubuntu 11.10 a hit

Toshiba Portégé Z830-10P Review

BT's archive: Pictures from the vault

News & Analysis

Reviews

Blogs

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features

ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Business of IT / IT Strategy

New technology to block camcorder pirates

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Post your comment

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Inside ZDNet UK

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features