Dish Network Files A Patent For Blockchain-Based​ Anti-Piracy System

Dish Network Files A Patent For Blockchain-Based​ Anti-Piracy System

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January 13, 2020 by Editor's Desk
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American satellite and broadcast provider Dish Network has struggled numerous legal battles on alleged pirate streaming tools in current years. The company filed a claim against the people behind TVAddons, for instance. More recently, the company went after various pirate streaming sites and IPTV reseller Boom Media. In addition to using well-established legitimate options, the
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American satellite and broadcast provider Dish Network has struggled numerous legal battles on alleged pirate streaming tools in current years.

The company filed a claim against the people behind TVAddons, for instance. More recently, the company went after various pirate streaming sites and IPTV reseller Boom Media.

In addition to using well-established legitimate options, the company is also assessing ahead. That became apparent this week when we detected a new patent application from Dish, which envisions a blockchain-based anti-piracy system.

Piracy has become increasingly uncertain, according to the company. It’s not just restricted to dedicated pirate sites but also bothers legitimate platforms like YouTube and Facebook, it remarks.

“The distribution of infringed material on content sharing platforms such as Facebook and YouTube has proliferated,” Dish pens in its patent application.

“For example, viewers can easily find links to live sporting events, hosted on someone’s Facebook account, find the newest episodes of their favorite series on YouTube or Dailymotion, or even join groups like mobile movies on Telegram..,” the company continues.

Dish writes that “millennials” and the “next generation” are frequently turning their backs on the traditional bundle service system, opting for less-costly options instead. These more reasonable options include the consumption of unlicensed content on legal services.

While most large companies have their anti-piracy solutions, these often have lapses, such as requiring rightsholders to search for pirated content actively. While a few large outfits employ hash recognition to detect content automatically, those systems are often proprietary and not readily available.

The new patent application conceives a technology that is deemed to be excellent. While it can’t be applied to arrest pirate sites, it suggests a blockchain-based anti-piracy system that legal services can use to verify if the content is distributed with approval, or not.

“The inventors have conceived and reduced to practice software and/or hardware facility that can be used by content owners to assert ownership of content so that copyright-friendly websites and services can take action against copyright piracy effectively, efficiently and is scalable,” Dish writes.

“The facility makes available to all content owners watermarking/fingerprinting technology so an identifier can be embedded in the content. The facility utilizes blockchain technology to add information related to each unique identifier in a database. It allows an authorized user (e.g., the owner) to update the information through a blockchain transaction.”

There are various practical implementations possible, but it’s evident that Dish is in support of a broadly available system that sites and services can utilize to decide whether the content is approved. The watermark or fingerprint-based system should communicate with a blockchain to prove ownership details.

Without a practical implementation, it’s laborious to discover whether this strategy will supersede or not. Nonetheless, blockchain-based copyright management itself is not a novel idea, as others have suggested this as well. The same is valid for watermarking and fingerprinting.

It’s exciting to see that Dish is actively seeking an alternative anti-piracy approach. Time will show if it comes to a realization, and if so, how efficient it will be. One thing’s almost assured, though, that there will be plenty of efforts by pirates to get around it.

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