LOS ANGELES — Xvid Solutions has announced the launch of a new tool for invisibly watermarking customer IDs onto online videos, a move that the company says will help stop piracy.
According to the company, its new solution, Xvid AutoGraph, binds any video content to its individual viewer through an invisible, forensic watermark, generated on the fly, with a spokesperson explaining that clips and films are no longer just copies, but valuable personalized originals that reveal any illegal uploader with pin-point accuracy.
“Xvid AutoGraph automatically embeds a unique watermark into streamed or downloaded online video. This digital signature carries a customer-ID tag, acting as digital DNA that becomes an invisible but integral part of the video content itself,” the spokesperson says. “Hidden in every single video frame, it cannot be removed and is only extracted when needed to uncover, identify and expose an illegal uploader.”
Watermarked video files are created in real time, whenever a copy is viewed or downloaded, without affecting the video’s perceived visual quality. The hidden ID tag watermarked into the video will reportedly survive even sophisticated removal or masking means, including video filtering, format conversions, size and quality changes — all processing steps that are also common when spreading copies through tube services.
“Fair use for the consumer remains unrestricted — just opposite to traditional and widely disliked DRM schemes,” the spokesperson adds. “This includes portability and playability of the AutoGraph-protected video files on any kind of device or platform as protected files remain conventional video that do not require any special hard- or software for playback.”
This means that Autographed files play when and wherever consumers want them to, with no prior registration, key exchange, special player or online connection needed — burdens often imposed by other DRM protection schemes.
“Existing DRM doesn’t prevent illegal copies, it just prevents sales by pushing customers to look elsewhere for DRM-free content,” explains Michael Militzer, inventor of the popular Xvid video codec and cofounder of Xvid Solutions.
“In today’s world where small, independent artists depend entirely on the success of their online sales but are hit hard by illegal file hosts paying incentives to pirate even the smallest, independent releases, it is time for something new. Something that is balanced, efficient and affordable and that does not criminalize the large majority of honest and loyal users like DRM does,” Militzer says. “So we came up with Xvid AutoGraph, a passive protection that just individually tags each video, turning every video copy into a valuable original.”
Xvid AutoGraph is available as a cloud-based web service as well as an on-site deployable software appliance, is highly scalable and applicable to all video related business models.
For more information, visit XvidAutoGraph.com.
