[Infowarrior] - CEBIT - DSL gateways will mark video to catch pirates

[Richard Forno]

CEBIT - DSL gateways will mark video to catch pirates
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Peter Sayer, IDG News Service

16/03/2007 08:30:33
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1722391352

Another role could soon be added to the many already performed by home
gateway devices: identifying video pirates.

Home gateway manufacturer Thomson SA plans to incorporate video watermarking
technology, which it also developed, into future set- top boxes and other
video devices. The watermarks, unique to each device, will make it possible
for investigators to identify the source of pirated videos.

By letting consumers know the watermarks are there, even if they can't see
them, Thomson hopes to discourage piracy without putting up obstacles to
activities widely considered fair use, such as copying video for use on
another device in the home or while traveling to work.

"The idea is to slow down piracy without limiting the use of the consumer.
They should not be upset about this unless they are widely redistributing
content," said Pascal Marie, responsible for strategic marketing at the
company's content security division.

Thomson developed the technology, NexGuard, to identify individual copies of
the films distributed digitally to cinemas or on DVD as preview copies for
reviewers and awards juries. In the past, pirated copies of films available
over the Internet or in street markets have been traced back to such
sources.

Now, the availability of high-definition video-on-demand services is
multiplying the points at which high-quality video can be pirated.

Thomson's plan is to watermark video with a unique code before it leaves the
home gateway or set-top box (STB). To do that, it is working with
semiconductor manufacturer STMicroelectronics to incorporate NexGuard into
digital video chips. STMicro has already incorporated NexGuard into its 7100
series of chips for STBs. NexGuard can mark video encoded in MPEG-2, MPEG-4
AVC (H.264) and VC-1 formats.

At Cebit in Hanover, Germany, this week, Thomson is demonstrating how the
chips might be used, and at the National Association of Broadcasters show in
Las Vegas next month, it will show prototype STBs incorporating the
technology.

Also next month, the company will unveil system capable of directly
watermarking content produced with Windows Media Video 9 codecs, Marie said.
"We are able to process directly this format without the need to decode it,
watermark it and re-encode it."

Thomson sells its gateways and STBs to network operators -- one of its
biggest customers is Orange, the Internet access subsidiary of France
Telecom, which packages the devices as the LiveBox, an all-in-one terminal
for telephony, television, Wi-Fi and Internet access.

Thomson will apply the watermarking at two levels, Marie said. One watermark
will identify the network operator distributing the content, while a second,
carrying 40 bits of information, will identify the individual device, he
said.

The watermarks are robust, Marie said. Films projected digitally and
captured by a camcorder can still be traced, although "we need a longer
period of detection to identify it," he said. Clips recorded directly from
an STB, re-encoded at a lower bit rate and then posted to an online video
sharing service might be identifiable after just a few seconds, he said.