Akamai said it has developed a new content security system that takes advantage of third-party watermarks to empower customers to stop unauthorized video streams.
The Access Revocation system, which updates its content security package, also addresses common forms of piracy including credential theft, system hacking, rebroadcasting stolen streams and VPN abuse.
Akamai said its new system works with several watermarking providers, including ContentArmor Forensic Watermarking, Friend MTS ASiD Watermarking, INKA Entworks PallyCon Forensic Watermarking, Irdeto TraceMark, NAGRA NexGuard Forensinc Forensic Watermarketing and Verimatrix Watermarket, StreamMark version.
Pointing to a published study, Akamai said that global online piracy costs the U.S. media economy $29 billion a year and between 230,000 and 560,000 lost jobs.
Akamai said it has seen its clients pay more attention to securing live events in particular.
“The urgency to shut down illegal streams is normally greatest in the case of live sports,” noted Chris Nicholson, senior public relations manager at Akamai, in a blog post.
“This is where significant money has been invested in streaming rights, and the value of the content is highest during what’s typically a narrow window of competition time. Akamai’s Access Revocation solution gives rights holders the power to immediately stop video streams that are unauthorized or the source of piracy," said Nicholson. “Access Revocation can work on its own or integrated with either the Friend MTS or NAGRA watermarking solutions to be part of a formidable “prevent-discover-enforce” content security posture.”
