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Startup Tries Watermarking Instead of DRM

Posted by Zonk on from the commendable-actions-mean-profits dept.

Loosehead Prop writes "A U.K. startup called Streamburst has a novel idea: selling downloadable video with watermarks instead of DRM. The system works by adding a 5-second intro to each download that shows the name of the person who bought the movie along with something like a watermark: 'it's not technically a watermark in the usual sense of that term, but the encoding process does strip out a unique series of bits from the file. The missing information is a minuscule portion of the overall file that does not affect video quality, according to Bjarnason, but does allow the company to discover who purchased a particular file.' The goal is to 'make people accountable for their actions without artificially restricting those actions.'"

2 of 344 comments (clear)

  1. Lesbians... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    ...there's your answer.

  2. Re:What's the enforcement mechanism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Sounds reasonable

    You must be some executive asshole who believes every crap.

    If you have 2 of these files, you can easily compare them, find out where they differ and the shit-cake is eaten.