Content-delivery company Akamai announced updates to its suite of security tools today aimed at better protecting media companies from piracy and illegal distribution.
In a blog post, the company cited a study claiming global online piracy costs US media companies around $29 billion each year and thousands of jobs. In response, Akamai is touting a content security ecosystem that takes a joint approach, leveraging the company’s in-house tech with that of several of its partners.
The ecosystem now includes support for third-party watermarking, a technique in which an identifier is embedded in content to make it easier to determine the original owner.
Live sports, the company said, represent a key area when it comes to identifying and stopping illegal streams. And while the coronavirus outbreak has significantly affected the long-term plans for many live sports and other events, the money typically invested in streaming these events makes quickly halting bootleg streams vital.
Akamai pointed to an interview with BeIN Media Group Chief Executive Yousef Al-Obaidly, where he discussed the urgency and vigilance that streaming live sports requires.
“You either make your money now or you don’t make money, it’s as simple as that. And that’s why people should try to immediately close these pirate sites, not to wait until 45 minutes, because the damage has already been done if we wait,” he said.
Despite its usefulness for live events, Akamai said its suite of tools are just as good at protecting on-demand video and other types of content. And with streaming traffic likely on the rise as more people stay at home during the day and at night, Akamai’s updated content-protection tools could be good news to creators.
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