A new content rights clearing service, MediaHedge, will make it easier
for the entertainment industry to protect its copyrights on digital content. Today,
most Internet video sites remove copyrighted materials manually based on
content owners’ explicit requests. MediaHedge, an automated rights clearance system
provided by Philips Electronics, can replace that manual process.
MediaHedge identifies copyrighted material during upload by matching the
content’s “video fingerprint” to files provided by content owners. Content owners
maintain ownership and control over the fingerprint database and can set rules
for the use of their content. Based on the content provider’s instructions, the
host can then allow, restrict or prohibit the use of the content on a video
sharing site or peer-to-peer network.
Philips’ fingerprinting technology can identify video material that is
currently in circulation, unlike watermarking, which requires information to be
embedded into the video content prior to release. The fingerprint matching
system can identify video even when it is severely degraded, and can recognize
very short video clips from anywhere in the original video material, even if
the audio has been changed.
