How forensic watermark pixel manipulation guards against pirated premium OTT video

Digital rights management (DRM) technology is used by over-the-top (OTT) platforms to control piracy and manage subscriptions. In the event that sophisticated pirate attacks from worldwide hacker networks do occur, they should be prepared. Premium Hollywood and sporting material piracy is worth billions of dollars. Video watermarking and digital rights management DRM video protection are used to track stolen content and impose legal fines on the user and networks involved for infringement.
Forensic watermarking technology begins with the creation of a watermark. In order to ensure that the watermark is secure and tamper-proof, the developer must randomly jumble a secret key. Watermark information, which may include information on the subscriber, device, and other characteristics, is rendered meaningless during preprocessing.
As an example, a preprocessing technique known as cat map employs a variety of techniques including stretching and compressing, folding and splicing. Continually applying the transform procedure might generate the original frame because of the periodicity it has. Forensic watermarking works by using a predefined algorithm to move pixels in each frame out of their original positions, so encrypting the entire frame. Using the replacement or permutation schemes, the developer can modify the value of each pixel in a frame, which is known as the substitution scheme.
High-resolution photographs that need copyright protection are typically the target of the cat map watermark creation method. As a result, video watermarking is now performed to video files as well after breaking video streams into individual frames on OTT services that play premium content. What matters most here is how transparent a watermark is because it can interfere with the authorised user’s viewing experience.
When the developer has developed a robust watermark by shifting pixels around according to a predetermined equation, they utilise a frequency-based technique to embed it into individual frames. Reversing the embedding process and discovering copyright breaches is made possible because of the resilience of the embedding process.

The original video must be identified in order to secure DRM-protected content outside of legitimate service providers. To put it another way, the infringing users or commercial pirates must be tracked all the way back to the last legitimate point of access. Video watermarking for forensic purposes enters the picture here. When using watermarking, the identification data (such as IP addresses, subscriber information, and session information, for example) is permanently embedded in the video. At the point of origin, the CDN (content distribution network) during distribution, or on the client device, the watermark can be inserted.

An effective video watermarking service must be able to deter piracy, identify the piracy outlets, and take the necessary steps to prevent leakage of the video content. In order to detect piracy, keep an eye out for suspicious activity and compare the digital fingerprints of suspicious files to the production fingerprint. The watermarking software is then able to identify the watermark and extract the information contained therein. Resize and collusion attempts, for example, shouldn’t affect the robustness of the watermark.