Catch Content Pirates
 

Tired of hearing "Adapt or Die"?

This is adapting and fighting back!

https://autograph.xvid.com/

Nice website and a good reading, but then you ask for personal info before you "allow" to watch the promised demo...feels like a scam to me :2 cents:

No scam, it's third-party software I've been using for over a year now and it works flawlessly to catch people who share my content.

There's no way to actually stop people from sharing content but this allows producers to find out who shared the content and take action.

A third party sofware you have licensed ?? Or "borrowed" and now trying to re sell it? :2 cents:

I spent years trying to find software that would identify who was sharing/reselling my videos but couldn't find anything so I spent $12K of my own money to have something developed. It didn't work as expected and the unique code was easily removed. Autograph adds a unique code to each video frame as it's being downloaded by the member and that code can't be removed.

People in this industry think piracy is a problem but it is THE problem. How can anyone sell something that's given away for free? My videos were stolen and shared the same day they were posted in my member's area. DMCA is pointless because the system is designed to protect the thieves so I knew I had to find another way to protect my content. Through extensive research I found Autograph.

I initially thought it was a large group of members who were sharing my content but I quickly discovered that it was a few pirates and they were getting free access from login lists circulating the web. That blew my mind! What's worse than someone stealing and sharing your content? Someone getting it for free. Autograph addresses that issue with a security feature and that was the game changer.

I'm a customer, not a re-seller. I've been using their product for over a year now and it's had a dramatic impact on my sales. I rarely post on here anymore because I can't stand most of the people in this industry but I care about content theft and want to help those who do too.

Great post. May I ask the ballpark price you are paying, dg?

They host the videos so the price varies depending on the bandwidth you're using.

They also have a feature where the files are stored on your server in case you ever wanted to turn their service off you can do it seamlessly.

I just spoke with them. I don't understand. If there's no way to 'search' these fingerprints to find where your pirated content lays; what's the purpose?

Is there not some fields like how I recall images have with strings for 'location image was fucking shot' etc?

This is great, i been looking for something like this, if only they could do it with still photo content as well.

That service is more of a 'catch who leaked it' type of service and you have to manually search for your embedded codes. You can't like Google it up and bust people.

I'm wondering how they deal with the fact that most tubes re-encode the files that are uploaded to crunch them to a size that can be streamed and make sure they are a uniformed codec ?? I would assume that any encoded information gets toasted when that happens :Oh crap

dgraves can you give some input as to if the information stays in the video file even if it's re-encoded on the tube ??

Thanks for the heads up, if it really works this should help those of us in the fight over content piracy!

In my "books" anything on any tube ( unless it is linked back to the original content producer) longer then 10 or maybe 12 minutes is stolen. So "re encode" or not, this is at least my rule:2 cents:

Well so far so good, I've created a trial account and added a video clip, which xvid's then ran thru their software and sent back for me to do whatever I wanted too to try and get rid of the fingerprint.

I ran it thru ffmpeg and cropped then resized the video, which is what I often find happens to my videos with the pirates, the crop out my logo and then resize back to 720p. Then I uploaded it back to xvids and it was able to email me the message that I had encoded in the orginal video.

I've got a couple more things I'm going to do, to try and obfuscate the info in the video, but I'm assuming that it will always be able to read the embedded code unless I just really chop out like 1/2 of the video and make it unviewable.

The next big issue that I'm waiting to hear back on, are the costs associated with the service.

I'll let you know what I find.


Tim

nice content and cool pics

Nice find!

So far they have been able to identify every username from any videos I find.

The only way to effect the code is to basically destroy the video like reducing the resolution to the size of a postage stamp which makes it useless anyway.

As an added security feature members are required to enter a code that gets emailed to them in order to watch the videos.

This has greatly reduced the amount of theft but every now and then a member doesn't believe the warnings and that this technology exists. Those are the ones who get passed along to my lawyer to deal with.

I'm curious how the marker survives beyond the CDN or are the being injected on the fly?

They have to have some process to inject on the fly, as the code passes the keyword that you want to have returned to you i.e. the username and it then serves up the video.

I've used the demo that they setup, and cropped the video down and then re-encoded it, and it still returned my catch phrase that I first created, it's quite cool :thumbsup

We are modifying our cms so that we can have it serve our new material, running thru the encoding system.

Since anything that has already been on the tubes could be uploaded from an old source, we choose to save the money and not have them encode and host all of our videos, we only have to catch 1 video to snag which members are uploading our material :1orglaugh

I'd like to hear any stories from people that have successfully prosecuted the pirates!!

That's correct, the unique code is added as each user downloads the video. I ran tests and did everything I could to destroy the code but couldn't.

I also created a trademarked logo that gets flashed periodically throughout my videos. My lawyer is currently pursuing "trademark infringement" to prosecute pirates vs. copyright infringement. With trademark cases you can go after everyone involved, site owner, host, processors, ad sponsors, etc.

This approach has been effective for having videos removed for the sites who ignore DMCA. DMCA was created to allow sharing so it doesn't have teeth but trademark does.

I have a few already with individuals who have shared my videos but I'll post info about a big one involving a tube very soon.

Thanks for the info. Yeah I did this a few years back but the marker code would never survive unless it was being done on the CDN. Very few folks, for good reason, don't want to change their CDN providers to some experimental house/CDN though. It worked the same though and would even survive in the torrent swarms.

And that is how it is still done, you have to use their CDN to serve up the files. You can just start using it for new files, that way the cost is minimal to get started with.

That's correct. A copy is also maintained on my server in case I ever want to turn the feature off.

You can choose which update(s) you want marked. Some sites only mark certain ones they think might be pirated but I have all mine marked because I use the additional email code feature.

How does that work ?? They have to send in to get an unlock code ?? So they have to use a special player to read the files ???


Thanks!

You create a folder on your server where you drop the video. Their software automatically detects it, downloads it to their server to prepare it for the code. Once it's ready you get an email. The process takes place automatically so it can be done anytime of the day or night.

I use Elevated X so once it's ready it appears a new set. I use the Elevated X player for streaming. If you don't want a video coded then you just process it normally without adding it to the xVid folder. You chose which ones you want coded.

It's not a DRM. You can't prevent theft, all you can do is catch the fuckers after the fact but it's better than nothing. Most pirates will leave your videos alone but if you have good content, every once in awhile someone will take a chance thinking it's a bluff.

Epornium has a reward system and guys who share my videos get big metals and street credit so some users are tempted by other scabs to buy a membership and share so that's where many of the videos are shared first. Then they cry like little bitches when they hear from my lawyer about how they didn't know it's illegal to share even though I have a huge warning at the beginning of each video.

One kid was a student at the University of Maine who downloaded and shared my videos from his school IP which compounded his problems. Part of his punishment was to post about getting caught. Look at the medals this little prick has for sharing content. I'm sure he was the big man on Epornium campus when he shared my videos but was begging for his life after he got caught. I asked him why he shared with the big warning on the video and he said he didn't think it was possible. That's the one bad thing about this technology, they figure if the huge network sites aren't using it then how can a small site be using it.

https://gloryholeswallow.com/pics/Student-Warning.jpg

love it :1orglaugh

Anyone has a link to the site ?
the only ref is "Autograph" but nothing else :(

Found them, communicated with them, in order to get their " imbed code" you must have your whole site and content hosted by them. That is a no go for me.

Is there somebody else who can just sell me the " insert cookie" ?

They host the watermarked videos but a copy of each video is put back on your server in case you ever want to stop using their service or shut it off.

Not quite, they stated it would not be practical to have any other host involved. I am with excellent hosting company for almost 10 years, and do not plan to change.