Choosing a DRM Strategy
One such company is FilmMates Entertainment, which acquires film libraries but also produces content for other companies.
"Taking appropriate precautions to protect our content is instrumental with so many options of delivery available and the potential problems of piracy rampant," says Jay Malla, FilmMates’ senior vice president of distribution and business strategy. "SmartMarking our films before distribution sends a message our company will monitor how our content is sold and distributed."
USA Video Interactive notes that its watermarking technology’s primary use is to allow law enforcement to gather evidence to detain and prosecute digital media pirates, but argues that its watermarking is the best fit for existing consumer viewing patterns and current playback equipment.
"SmartMark technology is making a difference for copyright owners that want to realize profits on films distributed to the domestic and international markets," says Edwin Molina, president of USA Video Interactive. "It works with existing production and distribution technology to protect copyrighted material without requiring new equipment in the distribution or playback environment."
Still in Flux
In summary, DRM is constantly changing to both stem the threat of media piracy and meet the needs of content owners for flexible distribution models.
Fortunately, DRM business models continue to evolve, especially now that the floodgates of consumer-driven content have opened wide, providing a way for large media companies to assess online viewing habits. The extended period of time in which new DRM business models will be tried provides opportunity for DRM companies, their customers, and their customer’s customers to reach a common ground between security and accessibility.
Technology models still have a long way to go, too: the complexity and ever-expanding universe of playback devices almost make it seem as if Moore’s law is reversed: what only took cable and satellite a few years to solve is now expanding to a much longer solution timeframe for web-based media content. Eventually rich media and traditional web content security issues will converge, as exemplified by a recent Entriq announcement that its conditional access DRM schemes now extend to cover Flash media content.
"Enabling our customers to add content security in a Flash environment is important because Macromedia Flash continues to grow in popularity as a technology for building rich and engaging internet applications and streaming multimedia content on the internet," says Scott Crowder, COO of Entriq. "Our customers look to us to provide the tools for them to monetize their content so that they can focus on creating compelling and creative content and successfully marketing that content."