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Drag net

Drag net catch me if you can. This may no longer be the catch phrase for those who circulate copies of films they have downloaded from the internet. Macrovision, a California-based firm, is soon launching a fool-proof copy-protection system that would embed detailed information about the buyer into any movie they download, thus preventing misuse.

Record companies use anti-piracy measures to restrict the copying of music and movies bought online. However, as soon as one of these systems is devised, hackers find out ways to crack them. But even if a system does prove to be unhackable, pirates are still able to get the content at the point where it's converted to an analogue format for playback. To prevent this from happening, Macrovision's system has two levels of protection. The first takes any digital graphics or text and wraps them in a folder. This can only be opened with a digital key, which is bought over the internet.

But this does not prevent the user from copying the analogue picture and sound signal into a recordable format. Here the second layer comes to the aid of the movie studios. This level is introduced when the digital content is converted into unprotected analogue. The software ferrets around inside the pc, taking an electronic snapshot of the hardware, software and set-up preferences it finds there. Thereafter, it bundles this information into an encrypted id code that's buried inaudibly and invisibly in the analogue sound or picture. From then on, the analogue content remains tagged with the details of the buyer. If the material later appears on a pirate disc, it could be analysed to find the id of the buyer, thus enabling the movie studios to nail down the culprits.

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