Anyone who follows boxing knows that having more than one punch in a boxer’s arsenal makes that person harder to beat. This allows the boxer to adapt to changes more quickly, confuse opponents, wear down others, and have a combination of defenses. This analogy of a boxer lends itself to the video content protection industry in the fight against content piracy. 

It may not be a well-known fact that video piracy has a ripple effect on society, not only affecting content owners and operators who are providing services to viewers but also a myriad of other individuals. For example, exchanges selling ad inventory on piracy sites indirectly fund platforms that stream content illegally. This raises concerns about contractual agreements between advertisers and ad-tech vendors while also raising suspicions about money laundering.

Assessing the cost of video piracy

By employing a robust security framework composed of layers, operators can diminish the effects of video piracy to an extent that significantly offsets the benefits gained by the pirates. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a critical component to any content protection approach, but it must be strengthened with other countermeasures. 

Let’s look at some of the numbers related to video piracy and how Verimatrix’s Streamkeeper Multi-DRM and Counterspy solutions can knock out piracy with a one-two punch.

Statistics showing the monetary impacts of illegal streaming worldwide.

Damjan Jugovic Spajic (2024, February 6). Piracy Is Back: Piracy Statistics for 2024. DataProt.

While the exact numbers are unclear, the financial impact surounding piracy is significant. The pirated content includes movies and popular TV episodes. This illegal viewing of content has a significant monetary impact on economies and the global movie industry. 

Other direct effects of video piracy include lost jobs due to illegal streaming and resource constraints on global bandwidth due to illegal downloading of copyrighted material online. The rampant nature of piracy and the sophisticated attacks require a comprehensive approach to content security.

Providing the “one-two punch” in content protection

In today’s digital content protection space, it may appear that Multi-DRM products are becoming a commodity. However, Verimatrix’s Streamkeeper Multi-DRM is the first “punch” in the defense of revenue protection and content safety by securing content through advanced encryption techniques. When combined with technologies such as user authentication, device trust, and watermarking, content is further safeguarded from pirates. 

Nevertheless, there are still ways for pirates to steal content, and additional methods must be employed to strengthen the safety net around the content.

When blocking an opponent’s repeated hits is not enough, more defenses must be applied to provide an opportunity to go on the offensive and take out the pirates. The knock-out “punch” in the content protection arsenal comes from Verimatrix’s Counterspy technology. This technology adds extra layers of anti-piracy above and beyond what Multi-DRM can provide. 

Using Counterspy, operators can detect unauthorized distribution of content, guard against theft of tokens, client IDs, and decryption keys, and protect against emulators and ad fraud. This collection of capabilities can catch video pirates attacking the threat surface from various angles. Being able to protect all possible entry points to theft provides an armor of protection from even the strongest attacks. As these malicious behaviors are detected further, automated countermeasures can be executed to stop the piracy.

While these solutions from Verimatrix can be implemented independently of one another, it is through their combined use that pirates get knocked out with the two-fisted approach. Additionally, watermarking adds to the anti-piracy repertoire. Just like boxers who become champions, a strong, multi-faceted approach is required to be the best. As video piracy continues to grow, it is imperative that those requiring content protection and anti-piracy solutions stay one punch ahead of the opposition.