Intertrust Partners with Civolution to Bring NexGuard Session-Based Watermarking to Its ExpressPlay DRM System

Intertrust Technologies Corporation today announced that it has added session-based video watermarking capabilities from Civolution’s NexGuard to its ExpressPlay Digital Rights Management (DRM) service. NexGuard watermarking technology allows copyright holders to identify the source of unauthorized distribution even after a movie leaves the encrypted digital domain of a DRM system. The accountability provided by NexGuard session-based watermarking has already proven effective in reducing the volume of video piracy, and will be a key aspect of content protection as the distribution of streaming video increases globally. ExpressPlay using Marlin DRM is currently the leading video DRM in rapidly growing markets such as China.

“Session-based watermarking is critically important, particularly in a large market such as China,” said Hanno Basse, CTO of 20th Century Fox. “ExpressPlay’s offering allows us to aggressively pursue new distribution opportunities that consumers want, such as early-window movie releases that are much closer to theatrical release dates, while appropriately managing the piracy risk that comes with them.”

ExpressPlay’s first watermarked deployment will support early-window TVOD and SVOD under a recently announced, exclusive licensing agreement between 20th Century Fox and iQiyi, the largest Internet and mobile video service provider in China.

NexGuard embeds imperceptible identifiers - or watermarks - in a video stream that may be detected at any time. The watermark is applied to a video as part of ExpressPlay’s cloud-based service before the video is deployed. NexGuard requires no client-side technology, and almost no change to the service provider’s ExpressPlay-based workflows.

“We are delighted to offer session-based watermarking to our content partners. Watermarking extends the reach of a DRM system by adding the power to track content after it has been decrypted,” said Talal G. Shamoon, Intertrust’s CEO and one of the early pioneers of digital watermarking. “We chose Civolution because we found its NexGuard watermarking to be best of breed, highly secure and robust in a variety of cases, and easy to use and integrate.”

ExpressPlay is used globally in a variety of video, audio and eBook services and has a significant market footprint in China. While China is an important early market for these features, ExpressPlay offers watermarking capabilities to all its users, and Intertrust expects global adoption as studios deploy more high-value content through the service.

“Civolution is very excited to partner with Intertrust in expanding the use of watermarking to protect digital content,” said Harrie Tholen, NexGuard managing director and SVP Sales & Marketing. “The combination of our watermarking solution and Intertrust’s ExpressPlay cloud service represents a complete, forward-looking content protection solution.”

About Intertrust Technologies Corporation

Intertrust provides trusted computing products and services to leading global corporations - from mobile and CE manufacturers and service providers to enterprise software platform companies. These products include the world's leading digital rights management, software tamper resistance and privacy-driven data platforms for AdTech, DNA storage and IoT.

Founded in 1990, Intertrust is based in Silicon Valley, with regional offices in London, Tokyo and Beijing. The Company has a legacy of invention, and its fundamental contributions in the areas of computer security and digital trust are globally recognized. Intertrust holds hundreds of patents that are key to Internet security, trust and privacy management components of operating systems, trusted mobile code and networked operating environments, web services, and cloud computing. Additional information is available at intertrust.com, or follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

About NexGuard

NexGuard (www.nexguard.com), a Civolution company, provides the most widely deployed forensic watermarking solutions in the movie and entertainment industry across the globe. The company offers an extensive portfolio of cutting-edge digital watermarking technologies and applications. Follow us on Twitter @NexGuard and LinkedIn.

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