M+E Daily

By Mel Lambert

Responding to DGA president Taylor Hackford’s passionate affirmation in his keynote presentation that “we must do something about piracy – or we will go out of business,” the remainder of yesterday’s Entertainment Content Protection Summit focused on specific ways in which the film, music, gaming, and software industries can stem copyright infringement.

“The entertainment industry’s treasure — its content — is being plundered by pirates of all kinds,” said conference co-chair Richard Atkinson of Anti-Piracy Worldwide. “Our key strategy needs to focus on risk management – the possibility of theft happening versus its impact if and when it occurs.”

Atkinson, the former head of Walt Disney Studios’ Anti-Piracy Operations, added that companies must make anti-piracy measures a part of their creative process, rather than rely solely on technological solutions. “Piracy is demand-driven,” he emphasized.

Co-organized by Variety and the Content Delivery & Storage Association (CDSA), the one-day summit in Universal City, Calif. explored the evolving nature of content security. Stuart McClure from McAfee stated that malware attacks, for example, have increased exponentially during the past decade.

“In 2009 we saw more [computer and website intrusions] than in all of the previous years combined,” he told the conference. “We continuously track the thousands of small teams that create malicious software and system hacks. Consumerization will force more IT changes over the next 10 years than any other trend,” he said, referring to the accelerated popularity of iPads, smartphones and similar devices.

A session moderated by Tom Moran of Savvis addressed various examples of secure supply chain management, including implementation of new standards developed by CDSA for certified suppliers, while a panel moderated by industry consultant Rajan Samtani focused on techniques for safeguarding valuable assets.

“There are no silver bullets,” warned panelist Joel Bigley of Deluxe Digital Studios. “Just hard work! And do not overlook the human factor – make employees a part of your security landscape,” he advised, “and explain the value proposition of security policies — which we link to our bonus structures.”

Steve Weinstein of MovieLabs offered a look at various fingerprinting and forensic watermarking techniques that enable the origins of pirated media to be uniquely identified and — rather than being blocked or removed — potentially monetized in a variety of ways. Another session, moderated by Brad Hunt of Digital Media Directions, considered a number of watermark technologies that prevent playback of pirated optical media and data files. Solutions include Verance’s Cinavia copy-management system, which is used within AACS-protected Blu-ray Disc players, along with a number of software tools from Fortium.

Mitch Singer from Sony Pictures provided a succinct overview of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem’s UltraViolet DRM implementation, which enables legitimate purchasers of physical and digital entertainment products to play the content on multiple formats/devices via a cloud-based account. The UltraViolet system is now being supported by Comcast, Microsoft, Best Buy, and others.

“Content protection,” Singer said, remains a matter of “helping keep normal people honest.”

In the final session, representatives from the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), as well as the music industry’s RIAA and studios’ MPAA, discussed ways in which cooperative activities between trade organizations can advance wider-reaching strategies.

“Movies, games, music and software are major revenue sources,“ said MPAA’s Mike Robinson. “Since piracy has a major economic impact we need to engage the federal government,” to ensure consistent and enforceable solutions. “We need to find areas of commonality,” added Marcus Cohen from RIAA, “and respond to our memberships’ needs. We have to deliver the results they need.”

Finally, Atkinson presented the conference’s “Buried Treasure Award” to Microsoft for its continuing efforts to stem software theft, as well as the company’s ongoing cooperation in the development of anti-piracy measures.