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Audio Watermarks Could Pinpoint Film Pirates By Seat

Posted by timothy on from the also-look-for-the-glowing-red-lights dept.

Slatterz points out a brief mention at PC Authority of a story at Torrent freak about using watermarking embedded in movies' soundtracks to reveal the exact location of camera-wielding bootleggers in a theater; the inventors (here's an abstract of their paper) claim it's accurate to within 44 centimeters.

11 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. Oh Really? by parasonic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And once it's publicized, is it really all that hard to throw a couple of wireless microphones out there under others' seats to "mix things up?" It would work if no one knew about it, but once it's out...

    Pretty much a moot idea.

  2. Another reason not to go to the theatre by hcdejong · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For this to be useful, the theatre would have to identify who's in which seat, which means
    a. showing ID when you buy tickets (and retaining the seating data for weeks or months)
    b. assigned seating.

    It's almost as if they don't want people to go to the movie theatre any more.

    1. Re:Another reason not to go to the theatre by Solandri · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The theaters aren't the ones pushing it, the studios are. Right now the theaters hand all their revenue from movie ticket sales to the studios. They scrape by on food and drink sales. Since the studios are getting all the ticket money without actually owning or running any of the theaters, it creates a situation which can come up with bizarre ideas like this which have no regard for the practicalities of actually running a theater.

  3. so what? by Hatta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you don't know who sat in which seat on what showing on what date, knowing which seat a video was shot from isn't going to help you.

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    1. Re:so what? by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Agreed. Movie theatre tickets are not even assigned by seats like a sporting event. Theatre owners probably sell 80-90% of their tickets as cash transactions, no ID, no credit card. But even if you paid for seat with a credit card, in which case they would know who they sold they ticket to, the seats aren't assigned -- you could sit anywhere in the theatre so they can know where you sat, but not who sat there or even which movie theatre the movie was shot in.

      And if they did start requiring IDs and assigning seats, well, let's just say movie theatres won't be getting my business anyway. I won't put up with that when I can purchase the movie and own my own copy for what it costs to go to movie theatre these days.

      Besides, most pirated movies aren't shot with digicam these days, they're pirated from DVDs, BDs, etc.

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  4. why? by kylemonger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've always wondered why the movie studios care about catching these people. These bootlegs are the worst quality you can find and anyone who would knowingly buy them would never be a customer anyway.

  5. That will not work. Pirates will use FM feed. by tepples · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Most cinemas that I've been to lately have micro-power FM transmitters that broadcast the audio in each screening room, for the benefit of people with hearing impairment who bring their own radios and listen on headphones. If the pirates were to use audio from this FM feed, the camera could be anywhere in the room and nobody would know.

    1. Re:That will not work. Pirates will use FM feed. by Bert64 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Those with poor hearing must be pirates, better stop broadcasting like that in the name of piracy prevention.

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  6. Re:Useless Information by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Funny

    All the cameras and watermarks in the universe will not catch a man with a hidden videocamera paying cash to see movies at large theaters in large cities.

    The whole "taping-in-the-theater" thing is sooooo 1999. Now we have good samaritans who are willing to leak the movie beforehand and save us the trouble of a trip!

  7. Re:Useless Information by Firehed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They've been doing that for quite a while, actually. Ever seen a bunch of red dots flash onscreen for a frame a couple times during a movie? (if not, you will now - sorry) Those are to determine what theatre a leaked cam copy came from.

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  8. Re:Useless Information by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Which is ironic, since it's still useless because it provides the info well after the fact. What good does knowing where the bootlegger sat if you find the video online or at a flea-market a week later? The person isn't going to sit in the same seat every time. If they're really worried, just get the movie theater ushers to check the seats in the middle. (Which should be obvious.) Anyhow, in-theater bootlegs are considered bit ghetto-ish nowadays since much better can be had as a direct conversion from leaked or recently released digital media. (And those are likely to be from friends/family of the actual people that do movie reviews, or those folks doing janitorial or mailroom work at press-related offices. What, you think those press-release DVDs actually get destroyed?) Nobody really wants the in-theater copy with the commentary and noise of the people around the bootlegger or see someone in front getting up for popcorn. Such recordings are only for people desperate for a quick movie fix or for those without access (direct or indirectly via friends) to a good internet connection.