In this digital era, the internet has opened up a world of possibilities for creators, their communities, and the content industry.
Because of the web’s size and speed, people can now watch and share more music, movies, sports, and entertainment than ever before. However, as the internet has progressed, so has online piracy.
So, What Exactly is Digital Piracy?
“Digital piracy” is a broad term that encompasses “a wide range of activities such as counterfeiting, pirating, bootlegging, home taping, tape trading, and online file sharing.”
The terms “digital piracy” and “piracy” used in this text refer to the illegal act of stealing or copying content from any source and converting it to digital content.
However, due to the high cost of OTT platforms, the shift of organized content from theaters to OTT solutions has also increased digital piracy.
Factors Influencing Digital Piracy Behavior
Some of the factors that contribute to piracy are as follows:
Credentials Sharing –
Credential Sharing is nothing but the practice of using someone’s digital identity to gain access to a platform. Giving someone’s credentials in exchange for money and signing in with their credentials is an example of credential sharing.
Trial Fraud –
Users frequently take advantage of a subscription-based service’s trial policy by signing up for the trial offer multiple times with different login credentials.
Simulcasting –
This method necessitates collecting content while playing back to redistribute it. The video capturing can get done in different ways, including:
- Screen capture during playback or screen-share sessions.
- VPN to acquire access to content that isn’t available in your current location.
- Use video software or tamper with the Android operating system.
- Use re-quantization techniques to avoid watermarking in videos.
Downloading Content –
It is nothing but illegally copying or downloading protected content that infringes on the owner’s copyright.
While almost all secure OTT video platforms use encryption to protect their videos from online video piracy, the encryption keys are easily accessible on the internet.
With this, let us see.
Must-Know Strategies For OTT Platforms To Fight Online Piracy
Irrespective of how sophisticated the piracy ecosystem is, not everything is lost, and there are several piracy prevention methods available to prevent or reduce overall content piracy.
Some of the best OTT Piracy Protection practices for content owners and distributors to avoid content theft (securing OTT content) are as follows:
Blocking Credential Sharing
Streaming websites that use popular CMS like WordPress can prevent credential sharing by installing multiple plugins developed by their developer communities.
When a user logs in, a unique ID is assigned, and no other ID for an account can get generated while this ID is active.
Content providers, however, can use single sign-on via Facebook or Google to block credential sharing.
Encryption
The process of scrambling plain text messages or email into an unreadable format is known as encryption. It aids in protecting digital data stored on computer networks or communicated via search engine networks.
Digital Rights Management
DRM is a set of hardware and software technologies that govern how we use, edit, and share content or information assets via online and offline channels. The OTT DRM Solution includes technological protection measures to protect the copyright for technology-enabled content.
Forensic Watermarking
Forensic watermarking is the process of concealing identifying information in each copy of a video file. A good watermark is difficult to remove without causing damage to the host video, and it is secure – it cannot be faked or altered.
Secure Hosting
Third-party hosting services can help content creators manage their streaming platforms. These platforms must offer OTT security, strong content delivery networks (CDNs), video analytics, and video API services.
IP Restrictions
IP addresses from all over the world can get barred from accessing content. It helps to block anyone from a specific country, including pirates and competitors.
Restricting Video Playback
Content distributors can limit users’ watch time based on their behavior to reduce account sharing.
Wrapping Up
The rise of over-the-top platform development has proven to be a boon for all of us. If you Google the ways to avoid OTT piracy, you will find tons of resources.
But it is entirely up to you to select the best OTT Software to prevent digital piracy. Thanks to the best OTT platform providers for bringing immersive videos to content-hungry audiences, especially in the virtual world where internet connectivity connects everyone via a single unified platform.
Even though they all begin with the same framework and features, not all OTT solutions are the same.
Keep the four factors in mind before making an informed decision:
Reliability, Customization, Privacy, and Price.
After that, you’ll be able to make the best decision for your company!
