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Bootleg Busters
Some movie fans just can't wait for the DVD or video
of their favorite film to come out. Or maybe they just
don't like spending the big bucks it takes to see a
movie these days. Whatever the reason, bootleg copies
of blockbuster films are a big hit on the black market.
This is especially true overseas, where lax regulation
means that taped versions of hit movies can actually
show up on the street even before they are released
in U.S. theaters.
But
what can be done to stop movie pirates from sneaking
into a premiere with a camcorder and costing the industry
billions? One answer comes from Cinea Inc., a small
Herndon company that is working to ensure that the wares
these pirates are peddling are worthless. Cinea is developing
technology — called CamJam — that will make
the image that these pirates record appear to be little
more than distorted gobbledygook.
Here's
how it works: High-tech equipment "sees" images
differently than does the human eye. "The human
eye will see things continuously, where in reality,
a video camera is taking a sequence of still shots,"
says Jeff Segal, Cinea's chief technology officer, who
works in the Richmond office where most of the technology
is developed. When a video camera records images off
a movie screen, a small degree of distortion —
typically in the form of bars across the playback screen
— occurs. "Because camcorders see images this
way, you can introduce a disruptive pattern into the
image," Segal says. The disruption will still be
undetectable to the human eye, but it will make bootlegged
copies rubbish to watch. The CamJam technology will
be added to the projection system of each movie theatre,
rather than to the film itself.
"The
focus of our technology is to destroy the economic value
of the pirated copy without affecting the unsurpassed
theatrical viewing experience," CEO Robert Schumann
says. Hollywood is very excited about CamJam, adds Segal.
"Think about how Hollywood makes it's money. …
If someone steals the content of a theatrical release,"
all the residual revenues from second screenings, pay-per-view,
video rentals and the like are damaged. The technology
has such potential that it caught the eye of the National
Institute of Standards and Technology, which recently
awarded the company a $2 million grant to help hasten
Cinea's development of its technology.
—
Leila Marija Ugincius
Return
to Virginia Business - December 2002
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