Streamburst Offers Innovative Non-DRM
Marshall Kirkpatrick
36 comments »
Documentary film maker Steve O’Hear announced today that his film In Search of the Valley is now available for download using an innovative service called Streamburst - a move he hopes will raise the project’s sales after disappointing initial DVD sales. Streamburst offers a way to discourage and track piracy without limiting the use of files by people who purchase them.
We wrote about O’Hear’s film of interviews with Silicon Valley figures Steve Wozniak, John Warnock, Guy Kawasaki, Craig Newmark, Jef Raskin, Tim O’Reilly, Dan Kottke and many others when the DVD was released in December. The interviews explore the history of the Valley and why it’s been such a center of tech creativity.
Offering full films for download would probably be most independent film makers’ first choice of distribution methods were it not for the problem of piracy. While it’s easy for some people to mock the concerns of media giants, small independent film makers’ careers are obviously directly contingent on their ability to monetize as much of their work as possible. (And they are easier to sympathize with.)
Enter Streamburst, O’Hear’s choice for online distribution. This newly launched UK company takes an interesting approach to copyright. Instead of handcuffing viewers who want to view films they purchase on multiple devices and otherwise use content legitimately in ways DRM blocks - Streamburst takes two steps to prevent movie piracy.
The first is that every film begins with a 5 second display of the name of the person who purchased that copy, as it appears on their credit card. The second step is that Streamburst strips out an undetectable but unique series of bits from each copy of a file downloaded. The company claims that this signature will survive most editing and format transfers. That idea is that the psychological barrier of being named will stop many people from illegally distributing the files and those whom it doesn’t stop can be identified by the unique series of bits stripped from whatever copies make it into illegal file sharing networks.
It’s not an unbeatable plans by any means, but Streamburst could help make content distributors more comfortable offering their work for download. That’s been the case with the makers of In Search of the Valley, which is now available in high quality, portable and mobile formats all for $8 through Streamburst.
It’s an interesting model and an interesting film. See below for a series of short teasers from the In Search of the Valley account at YouTube.
Marshall Kirkpatrick is the Director of Content at SplashCast and will be assisting with TechCrunch while Michael Arrington travels.
I don’t see how this will help stop piracy at all. I can just download the movie, chop off the first 5 seconds with my favorite video editing program, and re-encode the movie to the file format of my choice.
This would be an extremely easy way to get around both of their antipiracy measures, if I’m not mistaken.
It’s actually kind of a cool way of doing it, but they may need to take it further. How, I don’t know exactly but the idea has some potential, I think.
This is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. How in the world is this going to stop piracy?
In a world where major studios invested tens of millions of dollars to encrypt their Blu-ray and HD-DVDs, only to have both of them cracked in just weeks, does anyone seriously think that this will not be “cracked”? To even call it cracking is to insult everyone’s intelligence.
Filmaker: No one will put this on Bittorrent now because the first five seconds will have the buyer’s name on it!
Five seconds later …
Filmaker: Oh crap. Looks like someone figured out how to get rid of the first five seconds before releasing it online.
Not to mention videos purchased via identity theft and stolen credit cards … I think it is back to the drawing board for Streamburst.
The obvious flaws mean that it doesn’t scale. It’ll work fine while it’s a small curiosity, but will surely be broken 2 minutes after it achieves traction, were that to happen.
Not sure why this is a “non-drm.” Isn’t DRM just any means of enforcing copyright? This feels to me like a DRM, but, a very poor implementation of a DRM due to the ease with which someone could break it. The description “non-drm” should be reserved for digital media that is released without DRM.
I like that the goal of this implementation is to combat piracy and does not limit fair use in any way, so I see why you are interested in it Marshall. But I don’t define DRM as software which limits fair use.
No need to name and shame. There’s an obvious answer - change the production model. Offer participation in the process for a small subscription which funds the film - then give it away for free on p2p and bittorrent networks.
Doing that right now at http://www.aswarmofangels.com/ - we’re having another major voting round, where Swarm members get to influence the feature film and media created.
Here’s an idea…charge less and people will just buy them.
It’s not worth pirating a movie you can by for $4, especially if the one you’re getting is the full quality MPG2 version instead of a divx or xvid version.
It’s the same for music. Let people buy the full quality version for $.25 and you’ll sell more. $1 each means 15 songs for $15. How’s that different than buying a CD other than the fact that 1-I get to pick the songs, and 2-they sound worse?
Here’s another idea…when a new format comes out, let me “upgrade”. With an original disc, I’ve proven I’m an existing customer, cut me a break. Quit making me pay through the nose just to get the same content in a slightly improved format.
Wouldn’t a watermark throughout the entire movie (similar to the logos TV stations place on their programming) have more of the desired effect than the 5 second clip? If the intent is to ‘brand’ the purchased content, I think branding the entire thing in a manner less easy to ‘edit’ out would be more effective.
I’m not saying I want this (or any DRM/’non-DRM’ for that matter). I’m just merely mentioning something that seems to make more sense to me…
Why is it that I can’t rent this on Netflix?
“Wouldn’t a watermark throughout the entire movie (similar to the logos TV stations place on their programming) have more of the desired effect than the 5 second clip? If the intent is to ‘brand’ the purchased content, I think branding the entire thing in a manner less easy to ‘edit’ out would be more effective.”
For it to be acceptable, it would have to be in some non-invasive portion of the screen, and if that’s doable, it’s also doable for someone to simply cover it up.
Great idea, honestly. Sort of a DOH.
To all of you guys pelting stones at Streamburst for dumbness, take psych101 or something.
The reason Napster took off is because it was EASY. The reason iTunes took off is because it was EASY. The biggest impact piracy has is when it is made super easy - not for geeky TC users but for moms, grandpas and nontechies in general.
If I buy this dvd and someone asks to borrow it, I will at least GIVE A THOUGHT about the possible repurcussions rather than just turn over the dvd. Carrying one’s name isn’t a huge deal but it is enough to get me thinking “should I do it?.”
-Zaid
In my opinion they should have simply sold the movie without DRM, period. Steve’s my friend, and I like the movie, but this is stupid.
I think the point is, you can never stop piracy. And DRM just punishes honest people. We chose Streamburst because it doesn’t restrict what devices you can watch our film on, and doesn’t treat our customers as criminals.
We looked at Amazon UnBox and Britghcove for example, and they both use horrible Windows DRM.
- Steve (Director)
why don’t they just give it away for free. Its called open-source.
I would rent it from NetFlix though…and if they were smart, they could sell it on Tamago, and keep most of the money.
Mike, we are selling the film without DRM. Period. That’s what Streamburst is! You get regular MPEG4 versions for different devices — from full screen, media player, and mobile.
Ummmm… Andrew beat me to it. This is trying to Manage your Rights, and do so on Digital media - which spells D - R - M. It takes a goofy approach to it, using public culpability as a lever to motivate rights enforcement, but its still some soft of wrap around layer attempting to define how the media should/shouldn’t be used.
Of course, as everyone has pointed out already, this is stupendously easy to defeat… so, what is the point of this? Either release your material DRM free and rely on the Doctorow effect, or lock up it in iTunes and hope that mainstream availability will drive sales. I can’t imagine that niche distribution through an unproven model will turn out any better than either of those too options.
Steve, I think your confusing the implementation of DRM with the concept of DRM. Streamcast (as described in this post) is a different implementation of the same old concept.
@dreadsword
It is DRM-free. Try playing the mpeg4 on any device. It just works.
We had a lot of people asking for a download but we couldn’t find any “long tail” store that didn’t use Windows media DRM, until we came across Streamburst.
It might not be the definitive model but it’s light years ahead of Windows DRM.
The “watermarking” is secondary to us.
typically when you engrave something with your name it’s to show property ownership (e.g. police recover items with your name and return them )
however in this case, it seems like the purpose of the branding is more of a “we know who you are” threat.
for my use model, which is all about convenience, i don’t mind DRM.
-Stan
“for my use model, which is all about convenience, i don’t mind DRM”
That sentence doesn’t make sense. DRM kills convenience.
“DRM kills convenience”
Here’s a recent example at work:
- Loaded up iTunes
- Located, purchased, and downloaded
“Porroh Man”, from Big Country’s live compilation “Come up Screaming” (2000)
- Transferred to the iPod for portable listening at home, in the car, and gym.
- All for a buck.
A buck. That’s the same I would pay to listen once on a juke box. Maybe two if I opted for “Play it Now!”
If it takes DRM for the record companies to allow iTunes to provide me this convenient access to songs, I’ll take it.
The Big Country song was an impulse buy. I never would have taken the time to hunt down the CD and buy through Amazon.
-Stan
new attack target for virii - take all the user’s streamburst purchased media and publish them to a p2p network. have fun explaining how it all got there.
it’s lame and DOA.
hey guys…
the basic model of streamcast makes a great deal of sense. it’s not meant to be a complete solution to preventing someone from copying/snatching content. and yes, it is a somewhat poor attempt as the five second name at the beginning is easily thwarted.
a much better solution is to allow the user to download the content to the pc, and to blow the content to whatever cd/dvd is required. this allows the content to be viewed by the user where ever the user desires.
to prevent/slow down the process of illegal copying, the app that’s used to download the content is a proprietary app which is used to embed key sensitive user information within the content stream. the information is in plain text, able to be read if a user could single frame through the content. this isn’t that big of an issue, as the human eye isn’t really able to distibguish a single frame.
the process should also embed every few secs/mins a sequence id unique to the user. the app does a hash of the segment of the content, and returns this back to the CDN.
this overall process pretty much guarantees that the user has a unique copy of the content, and one that’s pretty easily recognized if it gets released to the p2p networks.
the app also contains a hash of the user’s computer. this is maintained to prevent the user from being able to use the network in the future for downloading if the content is determined to be illegally found on some p2p network.
other parts of the solution further minimize the spread of illegal copying.
however, it isn’t meant to completely deter the process of illegal copying, just to put a reasonable dent in the mix.
peace..
-bruce
ps. this overall approach has been discussed in other pervious threads.
Pretty nice model. Though, still lacking in many ways in my opinion. I think embedded advertising is the way to go.
Steve - I hear what you’re saying; There’s no BitTorrent video stores out there, are there?
Perhaps there’s a niche - something akin to the boingboing store. Hard to make a business case given the pirate-ability of the product.
People seriously!? almost everyone is freaking out about how silly their 5 second PreRoll and their magical missing bits are.
I just paid the $8 to get the movie, for 2 reasons.
1. I wanted to watch it, but couldn’t justify the $18 (the netflix comment was dead on)
2. Why not support someone who is taking a risk, is this finger printing breakable…. of course it is. Anything made by humans can be broken by us.
Consider this, the movie studios with all their millions of dollars for ridiculous invasive, regional dividing, content restricting DRM have not stopped one movie from being pirated…not one. They just piss us off, so EVEN if this “does not stop pirating” it doesn’t Piss us off so its a step in the right direction.
This is the fair “DRM free” service most of us have been asking for. This service answers all the critics of current DRM and internet movie downloads.
This model is as fundamentally broken as other forms of DRM. Okay, so even supposing their digital watermark is perfect and cannot be removed without destroying the content… how the hell do they identify who the buyer of the content was?
Of course they use the name on your credit card. The problem is that credit card fraud happens!! Has everybody forgotten that little fact of life? With this “name and shame” model, when somebody steals my credit card, not only do I lose $10 on the movie content, but I also get fingered as a pirate and get nasty latters from the MPAA. Thanks very much, Streamburst!
I’ve also just purchased the film through Streamburst.
I was interested in seeing it, but, even more than that, I want to support people allowing me to do whatever I like with the content. If I can burn the movie to DVD, watch it on an iPod or PMP, play it on as many devices as I’d like, etc., then I would say that my rights aren’t being “managed” at all.
I bought the DVD, and thought the bonus content was better than the film itself. Is the bonus content available for download?
The most quotable line goes to Guy Kawasaki, on the topic of evangelism. Goes something like: “First there was Jesus, then there was Steve (Jobs) . . . and not much else in-between”
It’s slightly embarrassing to see the amount of ideological pro-piracy of some of the comentators on here.
Streamburst seem to be taking quite a pragmatic view of piracy, that those who are determined to, can’t be stopped.
It mearly puts up a hurdle from making it casually easy, most ‘normal’ people will not be bothered to scan every film and find every way of identifying, those who will, would have done it any way.
It seems to be a simple elegant “why didn’t I think of that” type idea for what it wants to achieve.
It’s also drm-free in the sense that most people think of drm, you buy the content, you can do what you want with it.
It’s good that there are a whole mix of different ideas that people are trying, so just give this one a chance.
….but their is a limit to how much advertising on non-dynamic media you can have, or making movies by commitee!
Yours kindly,
Shakir Razak
€5.99 for a 60 minutes docu … and you want to spend an hour to remove the header and some encoded user information … you must be kidding!!!
I bought the film and downloaded it. $10 is a fair price for a digital movie I would say and enables new producers to push their content to a large community. Will watch the movie on my way cross the atlantic on my PSP … this digital life is fantastic.
Good move for them. I ordered the DVD and it didn’t turn up, a month later I got another sent to me. This then didn’t play on my TV DVD player because of course, they failed to send a PAL version to the UK. Duh. Pretty lame considering they were Brits in the first place.
All these comments miss the mark. This system is not intended to stop piracy at all. In fact NO DRM is INTENDED to stop piracy. The pirates are too smart, too big, too determined and too profitable to be stopped by DRM (See, HD-DVD hack). DRM is intended to prevent morons like you, me, and aunt millie from illegally downloading content from the p2p’s. Most “normal” folks will spend a non-nominal amount of money for top-notch programming. DRM just prevents us normal users (if there is such a thing) from enjoying the full gammut of our digital rights. This system seems fully in line with that concept. DRM is made to prevent US good-natured idiots from using p2ps for stuff we would pay for if it were offered to us with few restrictions at a low price. Pirates will ALWAYS pirate. There are certain people who will NEVER pay for content no matter how reasonable the price. This system is not designed to stop those people from doing what they are doing (no DRM system can). This system will help creative folks get the income they deserve from their work. Remember DRM is more about calming producers fears of piracy than really preventing piracy.
This is really nice simple service. The general design is great and the user interface well thought out. Why would you buy any of the DVDs on sale from a regular outlet and miss out on all the different formats you get for free with a purchase through Streamburst.
With regards to pirating, yes you could just chop off the first 5 seconds of the movie, but then you loose the first 5 seconds of the movie! Besides, i believe each file gets a unique “fingerprint” which cannot be removed by editing or re-encoding the file. So everything’s been thought of already.
Nice one Streamburst!