In this blog I present statistics about the popularity of freely available video download tools. These downloader tools enable piracy of your proprietary video content. These tools in the form of software, plugins, sites and extensions are available quite freely across the web. These tools work against non secure video streaming sites to encourage easy video downloads.

Number of users of video download piracy tools

I have included the link to sources from where I have obtained the relevant numbers for the video download tools. For sites, I have taken the estimated annual unique visits from Alexa. Details for the top 10  video downloader tools are given here. Total number of video pirates are calculated at end.

Obvious Need & Source for Secure Video Streaming

To prevent such a huge number of illegal video downloads, there is an obvious demand for highly secure video streaming. An encrypted streaming technology that can block all these downloaders and sites from accessing protected video content.

VdoCipher provides video hosting with piracy protection technology for education and media businesses to help them stream content on their site or app in a most secure and smooth manner. 

Key features include highest security from video piracy through DRM encryption and watermarking technologies, and smoothest streaming at slow connections due to optimised encoding at lower sizes. The complete package features include AWS cloud hosting, smart video player, dashboard and APIs to manage and integrate content and offline secure playback in mobile apps.

Check out all these cool features with a free 30-day trial just by signing up here. *No Card details required.

Siddhant Jain

CEO, VdoCipher. Writes about video tech, ed tech and media tech.

www.vdocipher.com/

The post How many use easy video download piracy tools? appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.

I would like to have a take on the notion considering current legislation and technologies. It is true that a content which is online can be acquired by hook or crook. Quality is generally compromised in this forceful acquisition. Camera captured versions of movies in poor quality is a common example.

The first infographic is an excellent illustration of means through which paid content reaches the end viewers. It includes both legal methods as well as the path adopted by pirates. It is shocking to see how premium content is able to reach all over the world for free. The circle of warez , torrent and linkers is the primary culprit for this online piracy. As we move away from the center, the number of branches distributing the content for free increases exponentially. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) has been proposed as a solution to the problem . Instead of trying to prevent stealing of premium content from initial release points, SOPA tries to disarm the websites which have  ability to redistribute this release. It targets subsequent circles of seeders , uploaders and downloaders which comprise the general internet users. This circle is the nerve of internet. Trying to restrict it would mean to undo the openness, which the world wide web has brought into the world.

Another infographic discusses the numbers relating to online video market and piracy. Lets reflect upon how much a video DRM can affect this scenario. There are encryption & authentication technologies adopted by video hosting companies which are evolving over the time.
The videos hosted through these technologies can’t be downloaded on web. Their idea is to make download so difficult that users would find the effort of download to be much exhausting; and ultimately pay for the video.

Leakages that can be prevented by technologies and not legislation

As seen in the first picture , the loss of video content from the release groups and paying users has to be targeted. Lets consider the movie and e-learning industries which are looking to sell videos online. The paid users are the starting point of piracy. One subscriber pays for the video. He downloads it using one of the freely available downloaders. Then, he shares it among his circles or puts it online. This  allows everyone to enjoy premium quality content at no costs. Most of the CDNs and online video hosting companies with DRM  try to plug these holes.

How much effective can DRM strategies be?
Looking at the second picture, one can see that in USA 70% of the pirates are of age 18-29. The number of copy-right infringement notices given to colleges is a clear indication of how students are able to access and enjoy free content. Most of premium content is available at affordable costs, but it is so easy to get it free that no one even pays the actual amount. This has lead to a great loss to online TVs , tutorial teachers and movie sellers.   The securities based on encrypted video streaming and authentication is an effective solution to this problem . These DRM solutions prevent download from any such downloader on web. This restricts online and offline sharing of content. Another means to prevent video piracy is dynamic watermarking. Watermarking the videos with information of the subscribed user is an effective means to restrict uncontrolled distribution of videos. To know more about video piracy and how to stop it, you can refer to the blog linked.

What are the costs of the solutions in terms of technology , usability and money ?
There are no overhead costs of these technologies in terms of bandwidth or other network resources. The underlying innovation itself is the prized commodity. The quality of streaming can be easily maintained at par with any regular streaming. End users can access the content without installing any software on their desktops. Apps are available to ensure mobile compatibility along with security. With more and more companies coming up with innovative DRM systems customized for markets like media and e-learning , there is a hope that premium video content creators would be able to monetize to their potential.

About the author – Siddhant is Co-founder at VdoCipher , Startup helping people to sell videos online. Check out the site if you are looking to prevent download of videos embedded on your site.

Siddhant Jain

CEO, VdoCipher. Writes about video tech, ed tech and media tech.

www.vdocipher.com/

The post Looking to sell videos online : Protection from piracy appeared first on VdoCipher Blog.