How to Protect your Audio/Video Content with Secure DRM Solution

Taking a trip down memory lane, you might have heard of Napster. Napster was founded as a peer-to-peer audio file sharing platform where people could simply share music with one another, for free.

This was 1999, when the internet was young and not as streamlined and protected as it is today.

It was also the time when music, and most media content, either streamed on broadcast TV or was sold on a transactional basis i.e. one-time price for a single song or album and you could listen to it for a lifetime.

Napster shattered this business model with its free music sharing agenda. While it was created in good faith, it was violating music copyrights which was a big issue since artists were losing well-deserved revenue.

This is when the idea of online content protection was renewed. There was a dire need of an infrastructure which could seamlessly get digital content and assets out to the people without violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

Thus developed tools and technologies to ensure controlled online access. Overtime, it was given the name digital rights management.

How DRM Works In Vplayed

When it comes to content protection, DRM infrastructure involves a lot of essential and intricate information exchanges.

A License Server needs to approve any play request before the stream starts. When a person clicks on play, the Vplayed player sends a license request to a third party License Server. Vplayed acts as a proxy throughout this request transaction. When the License Server approves the request, the video starts to play.

All this takes place within a matter of seconds to ensure speedy and seamless streaming.

Vplayed’s DRM – Key Features

AES 256 Encryption Protocol

With the help of DRM, the entire video content is thoroughly protected by AES-256 encryption protocol. This ensures your copyrighted content is protected at all times from infringement.

Permissions & Access Control

DRM allows creating a firewall between the user and the content and limiting their access. Vplayed’s admin dashboard can reduce or remove visibility of any video asset on a user level.

Print Prevention & Watermarking

Vplayed’s DRM has in-built print prevention, which means that no one can take a screenshot or a printout of any part of the platform. Also, it gives watermarking facility in which you can add up to 4 watermarks.

Secured Paywall Integration

DRM inserts a paywall between the platform and the user if a non-subscriber tries to access the video content. This helps in ensuring only paid users can access the platform and all its features.

IP Blocking and Geo-fencing

DRM has the ability to block an entire demographic or region based on the IP addresses, enabling geo-blocking feature. This feature is effective to the dot for countries as well as small districts.

SSO (Single Sign-on) Integration

SSO integration allows for a smooth sign-on experience. In this, instead of registering on the platform from scratch, users can utilize pre-existing login credentials (Facebook, Google, etc.) to login to the platform.

Benefits of DRM

• Restricts copying or lending of digitized material, thereby creating a barrier against piracy copyright infringement.
• Prevents illegal and unethical file sharing while ensuring that the artists and content owners generate profitable revenue.
• Improves brand value as utilizing DRM services delivers a message to consumers that the VOD platform is providing legitimate and valuable content.
• Provides assurance to companies that their audio and/or video content is safe and secure, thus removing any extra stress regarding the safety of their brand.
• Providing consumers with parental controls through features like prevention from accessing adult/violent content.
• Helps enterprises control the access to sensitive & confidential information while simultaneously allowing secure transmission of the same data over an encrypted medium.

Conclusion

For content owners who broadcast a bulk of content, DRM solution is the way to protect that content against theft and copyright infringement. In addition, DRM provides a whole lot of features that help in marketing and branding of the content in a secure manner.

Some of the best vod platforms use DRM to protect their video as well as audio content. Any video or audio is prone to theft and its essential to ensure its safety at all times to provide a well-deserved revenue to the creators.