ANTI-PIRACY

The term “anti-piracy” describes the actions done to stop, discourage, or prevent the illegal use, distribution, or duplication of copyrighted content, including books, software, music, movies, and other types of intellectual property.

Anti-piracy efforts are aimed at protecting the rights of copyright holders and the industries that rely on the sale of these materials. It involves various technologies, legal strategies, and other approaches to prevent piracy and enforce copyright laws.

Common Anti-Piracy Measures

  • Digital rights management (DRM): Used to protect copyrighted content by limiting use or distribution, and to enforce the license terms of rights-holders.
  • Watermarking: Used to identify content in unlicensed locations and to trace it back to its illegal distributor.
  • Copyright notices and warnings: These can be included on products or in digital content to remind users of their legal obligations regarding copyrighted material.
  • Legal action: Civil and criminal actions against individuals or organizations engaged in piracy, as well as efforts to lobby for stronger anti-piracy laws and regulations.
  • Education and awareness: This involves educating consumers about the importance of respecting copyright laws and the negative impact of piracy on the creative industries.
  • Technical measures: Region coding on DVDs or software activation codes, which can make it more difficult for pirates to make unauthorized copies.
  • Cooperation and collaboration: Working with other organizations or industry groups to develop and implement effective anti-piracy strategies.

Using multi-DRM and Conditional Access, an industry standard, is the first step in preventing piracy and protecting valuable content. An effective multi-DRM system provides a frictionless viewing experience, while at the same time protecting and maximizing content revenue. It keeps infrastructure costs in check and helps untangle and simplify DRM deployments across various players, streaming formats, devices, and platforms.

Forensic Watermarking should also be an industry standard. Fortunately, encoder, packager and CDN standards and integrations have made watermarking content significantly easier. Concurrent Stream Management limits credential sharing and allows operators the ability to upsell additional streams. Finally, the final line of piracy defense involves code protection and obfuscation to protect software from unwanted attacks.