Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: New Anti-Piracy System for Theatres

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Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 11-11-2004, 09:35 AM:

I'm sure this will be the end of piracy as we know it [Wink]

. Now, if we can just figure out who pays for this. I'm sure the exhibitors would love this additional expense!!!

Pirate Eye Website

Tom's Hardware Guide Article

quote:
PirateEye detects concealed video cams in movie theaters

By Wolfgang Gruener, Senior Editor

November 10, 2004 - 16:38 EST

Los Angeles (CA) - A Florida firm claims to have found a solution for the movie industry to prevent bootlegging in theaters. Trakstar demonstrated its Pirate Eye technology, which uses light impulses to detect video recording devices and TVS, a sophisticated audio watermarking system.

In Howard Gladstone's view, the end of in-theater piracy is just a matter of time. Gladstone, president of Trakstar, demonstrated a rather creepy sounding technology apology this week in Hollywood in front of an audience mixed of movie industry representatives and journalists. His "PirateEye" monitoring system is able to reliably detect recording devices which can be used for bootlegging. This includes video cameras but also cell phones with video recording capabilities.

"PirateEye scans a complete theater room three times during a presentation," he said. The device is remote controlled and uses light impulses to find recording devices, including pinhole camcorders. According to Gladstone, the audience does not notice the scanning progress. "The impulses are only 20 ms in length. Neurons in the brain need about 40 ms to recognize the light source. And the head normally will turn after 200 ms."

A second part to Trakstar's anti-piracy solution is TVS which implements watermarks in audio signals. These watermarks are recorded in bootlegs and easily can be retrieved again, when pirated content is offered for download on the Internet or file-sharing services. "We are able to extract the data even after multiple analog re-conversions and copies. This allows us to determine where and at which time the copy originally was created."

Expectedly, there is "great interest" for the technology from the movie industry, according to Gladstone. Currently, several large firms evaluate his proposals, he said.

However, there was no decision yet, if and which technology could be used. So far, a reasonable business model has not been determined and there is no agreement on who should pick up the cost of the technology implementation. Gladstone however believes that his system would be ready for installation by mid of 2005, if the movie industry chooses to use his technology.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 11-11-2004, 02:10 PM:

Hmmm, sounds promising IF the majority of those billions and billions of dollars the industry claims to loose annually are being lost to copies that are made by guys in trench coats recording movies in a theatre. Bottom line, IT IS NOT! It has be established by independent research and investigations (was it AT&T did the study) that impact piracy comes from quality copies, not from the in-theatre camcorder copies. Or is this company simply ignoring that information and just relying on that mythical stereotype of the movie pirate with his $400 camcorder? So unless this company can do one of their sweeps inside the screening rooms of the industry executives who get their own private copies or get their audio watermark on the track inside the post production studios and processing labs, this is all just so much pissing in the wind.

Perhaps they could take a hint from the pirated copies themselves -- like the superb copy I saw of TITANIC that had the text "Academy Copy - Not for Distribution" under the letterbox image.

And as Mark says, do the studios think the exhibitor is going to foot the bill to install this hardware? And is it reasonable to think that it will go into EVERY multiplex screen in the country? If not, then there will still be holes in the system. And say they DO get this technology in EVERY theatre in the country. What will they do when half the third world STILL get millions of copies of a film right on the heels of it's US release. Who will they blame THEN? That's when they find out they were standing down wind of that yellow stream.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 11-11-2004, 04:09 PM:

How can a pulse of light detect a video camera?

Sounds like a bunch of [bs]

to me.

I don't care WHAT kind of computer technology they use to "detect" reflections from camera lenses. It just sounds too implausable to work reliably.

Do you remember that digital face recognition they supposedly used at the Superbowl after 9/11 to catch "terrorists"? That was all a bunch of bullcrap too!

This looks no different to me!

If they are saying that the light pulses are the equivalent to an electronic CAP code then I might accept it as true but that begs another question:

If the original CAP code works so well then why do they need to invent yet ANOTHER kind of CAP code (or any other kind of electronic system for that matter) to foil video pirates?

Therefore, logically speaking, either the original CAP code doesn't work or else the new system is just a bunch of smoke and mirrors.

We KNOW that the original CAP code works. Just ask John P.
Therefore, I suspect this story is bullshit.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-11-2004, 05:23 PM:

Invisible pulses of light? It's likely to be about as invisible as the CAP code is. [thumbsdown]

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 11-11-2004, 09:25 PM:

quote: Frank Angel
Perhaps they could take a hint from the pirated copies themselves -- like the superb copy I saw of TITANIC that had the text "Academy Copy - Not for Distribution" under the letterbox image.

HAHAHA! Those were the days... I remember back at my high school, *everyone* was trading copies of this. And this was back in the old days of VCR-to-VCR dubbing. (And this was a 2-tape deal, so I'd imagine it was no easy task) I remember it popping up everywhere, from a substitute teacher showing it in class to seeing it on the charter bus on the way to a field trip... all while it was still playing in theaters!!

And the movie went on to make over $600m and became one of the highest-selling video releases of alltime. What does that tell you? [Wink]

More accurately, the subtitle read: "Academy Members' Special Widescreen Edition" static the whole time.

=TMP=