Guba Introduces Video Fingerprint Filtering

 

 

Guba Introduces Video Fingerprint Filtering
July 27, 2006

http://www.drmwatch.com/drmtech/article.php/3623091

Guba, the video sharing website, announced that it is cooperating with the MPAA to keep copyrighted video clips off its site by using a technology for video fingerprint filtering.  The technology, code-named "Johnny," was developed internally at Guba starting years ago when the company focused on searching Usenet bulletin boards.  Guba is considering licensing the technology to its competitors in the video-sharing space, such as YouTube and Google Video.  Guba has licenses to distribute programming from Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. in DRM-protected formats.

Guba has released no details of the Johnny technology, other than some suggestions that it is robust enough to survive simple manipulations such as cropping.  Yet we suspect that its effectiveness is limited to a relatively small number of titles, such as feature films.  It is possible to take "fingerprints" of video in the same way that acoustic fingerprinting technologies like Audible Magic do for music: they examine the actual content and compute a number from that analysis -- the fingerprint -- that can be used to look up the content's identity in a fingerprint database. 

The problem is that the universe of music tracks to be fingerprinted is relatively tractable, compared to copyrighted video clips such as every day's newscasts on television networks and stations throughout the world (and even then, there are some doubts that acoustic fingerprinting actually works beyond the relatively small universe of "short head" major-label releases).  Updating such a large and fast-growing fingerprint database, and making it efficient enough to be used in filtering of copyrighted material from a site like Guba, seems utterly impractical.

Therefore it makes sense that Guba is working with MPAA -- and not, say, NAB, which represents television networks analogously.  Yet how well it works may be beside the point.  Video-sharing sites like Guba and YouTube have exploded in popularity over the past several months, and copyrighted material has inevitably been posted on them.  Copyright owners have served them with DMCA-based takedown notices, with which they have complied, but this process is not scalable.

Furthermore, the current US legal landscape makes litigation against these services, on a broader scale than individual infringers, a distinct possibility.  The Supreme Court's Grokster decision of a year ago implies that content owners can cause trouble for these services by dredging up evidence that their business models depend on copyright infringement.  Just last week, in fact, a journalist sued YouTube over a video news clip from 1992 that someone posted to the site -- an occurrence that may well become more frequent as time goes on (although Johnny seems utterly inadequate to identify such content). 

Therefore, any evidence that Guba and its competitors can produce that they are proactively trying to keep copyrighted material off their sites helps fend off Grokster-related litigation.  For this reason, we suspect that Guba might have a nice line of revenue on the side from licensing its video fingerprinting technology -- which we believe to be unique as a practical matter -- to its competitors.

GUBA and MPAA Team Up to Crack Down on Movie Piracy

Digital Fingerprinting of Films and TV Shows Prevents Illegal Online Distribution

San Francisco and Los Angeles, Calif. - July 20, 2006 - GUBA, a leading online video entertainment website, announced today that it is collaborating with the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) to block illegal trading of movies and television programs on www.guba.com. GUBA is the first video sharing community to partner with the MPAA in filtering copyrighted video.

GUBA is filtering movies and TV shows using a proprietary technology, codenamed “Johnny.” Johnny analyzes video in digitized form and generates a unique fingerprint for each video. Once Johnny has scanned a video, that video is blocked from illegal file trading or distribution on GUBA’s site. GUBA plans to make Johnny available to other video sharing services to help eliminate copyright infringement on the Web and on Usenet, an electronic bulletin board commonly used for illegal file sharing. Until the implementation of Johnny, copyrighted content on Usenet has been largely unfiltered.

“Johnny can identify a video, even if that video has been modified, cropped, reformatted, re-encoded or reposted,” said Thomas McInerney, CEO and founder of GUBA. “GUBA allows users to upload and share their videos, while Johnny helps protect copyright holders from illegal posting and sharing. Johnny is an essential cog in making video sharing safe and easy.”

The MPAA has been working with a wide array of technology companies to provide a bridge in the digital transition. GUBA and the MPAA have included thousands of movies and television programs from major studios in Johnny’s filters. Filtering efforts on MPAA titles have so far been successful, and GUBA is committed to continuing and improving on this initiative. In the last month, GUBA has begun distribution of Warner Bros. and Sony film and television shows online.

“Providing consumers legitimate ways to get movie and television programming online is essential to our industry,” said Chairman and CEO of MPAA, Dan Glickman. “Collaborating with GUBA has given us an opportunity to test new technology that will help ensure consumers can freely share videos without being exposed to illegal programming, which could lead to copyright infringement. We hope that other such sites will employ similar technology which allows them to conduct legitimate online businesses while protecting the creations of thousands of people who work in the entertainment industry.”

As a copyright-friendly service, GUBA currently prevents users from uploading feature-length films, DRM-protected content, MP3 files, and software.

About GUBA
GUBA is a leading online entertainment destination helping you find digital content that will entertain and captivate you. On www.guba.com you can easily browse, download and share video, and buy feature films and TV shows from quality producers, such as Sony and Warner Bros. GUBA has an intuitive search interface that enables rapid download to the PC, iPod, PlayStation Portable, and other portable devices. Users can watch video in Flash, QuickTime, and Windows Media formats, and can stream video in their home network using Windows Media Center and Apple's Front Row.

GUBA accepts video submissions from users in all commonly available formats, indexes video from parts of the Internet that major search engines do not search, and licenses feature films and TV shows from major studios and independent producers.

Founded in 1998, GUBA is privately held and is located in San Francisco, California. For more information, please visit www.guba.com.

GUBA is a registered trademark of GUBA, LLC. All other trademarks and registered trademarks previously cited are the property of their respective owners.

About the MPAA
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) serves as the voice and advocate of the American motion picture, home video and television industries from its offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Its members include: BuenaVista Pictures Distribution; Paramount Pictures; Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.; Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Universal City Studios LLP; and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.