Review and analysis of known real-world attacks on subscriber watermarking solutions

A subscriber-level watermarking solution coupled with a large-scale content monitoring is a highly effective anti-piracy measure that allows content owners and distributors to fully protect their content and revenue from theft beyond digital rights management (DRM) systems.

In order to provide customers with the class-leading watermarking content protection service and satisfy the security requirements of its mass subscriber watermarking, Friend MTS actively research threats to watermark technology and its implementation and analyse real-world attacks instigated by technically sophisticated pirates. 

Relying on the technical data obtained through operating the world's most extensive automated monitoring of a wide spectrum of illicit content services, the white paper sets out current research by Friend MTS into attempts actually being made by pirate distributors to circumvent subscriber watermarking solutions in order to hide their identity. 

Structural and implementation characteristics of watermarking technologies, such as Bitstream Modification, A/B Variant, and Client-Composited solutions, are analysed to understand the level of their robustness and pinpoint vulnerabilities exploited by content thieves.