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Philips spins off watermarking business as Civolution

Downloading from internet
There's no way that a big company like Philips can keep up with the rag-tag pirates on the interwebs, which might explain why the company has spun off its content watermarking business as Civolution. Not to be confused with TiVolution (which also is showing an increasing desire to watch what you watch), the new company also pulls the Philips/Medialink venture, Teletrax, into the fold to offer up broadcast TV metrics and complete the marketer's tech dream combo. Not great news for bootleggers, but it beats media-crippling DRM by a mile in our book. You didn't really think Philips was going to limit its reach to the hotel PPV circuit, did you?

Philips' VTrack watermarks content recorded with camcorders


Certainly not the first watermarking scheme we've seen of late, Philips has introduced a new method that it hopes will thwart any plan to snag sensitive PPV material and distribute it illegally on the intarnetz. The VTrack solution, set to debut at NAB Show, is aimed at hoteliers who enjoy offering up PPV films well before the DVD release date. The company will be integrating the technology -- which makes content captured via camcorder traceable -- into its 26-, 32-, 37- and 42-inch HDTVs, and if someone does set up their own bootlegging studio and then share it with everyone on the web, content owners can unearth the time, date and location of the deed. In Soviet Russia (and hotels with Philips sets), content watches you.




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