Custos is using Bitcoin to turn digital pirates against each other
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Re: Custos is using Bitcoin to turn digital pirates against each other
#2> Custos embeds imperceptible bitcoin private keys in the digital files, with different keys for different advance copies of a movie or ebook. (...)
> At the same time, Custos makes a piece of free software that screens movie files for these private keys and markets the screener to content pirates. Pirates now have an incentive to check pirated movie files in case they contain a key. If a key is detected, the pirate can claim the bitcoin bounty—usually between $5 and $10—and is free to keep it. But once a bounty is claimed, Custos is alerted, and can begin the process of figuring out the origin of the leak.
This is really clever! A very interesting social experiment with some game theory dynamics on the way.
Re: Custos is using Bitcoin to turn digital pirates against each other
#3“You just need a single rotten apple in that group,” he says.
Reminds me of my Primary school teacher :)
Custos did it masterfully.
Re: Custos is using Bitcoin to turn digital pirates against each other
#4It seems like a good way to drive awareness of digital watermarking in the file sharing community.
Re: Custos is using Bitcoin to turn digital pirates against each other
#5The big disadvantage with this scheme is that the publisher needs to pay the reward in advance for every copy they want to protect. That‘s why the rewards can‘t be big. (The publisher could of course keep the private keys and redeem unclaimed rewards themselves after some time, only risking currency fluctuations)
Re: Custos is using Bitcoin to turn digital pirates against each other
#6This is neat, but I can't help but feel it's not going to work.
It would work if you encounter a movie that you wanted to watch, decide you want the money instead, and you report to Custos.
This is not how piracy works.
Instead, a pirate knows the value of the good they have. They know it's worth more to their reputation in the community than $5-10 dollars. By setting a bounty on it, you'll just have others willing to pay more to leak it themselves. This is an experiment, not a business.
Re: Custos is using Bitcoin to turn digital pirates against each other
#7This is neat, but I can't help but feel it's not going to work. It would work if you encounter a movie that you wanted to watch, decide you want the money instead, and you report to Custos. This is not how piracy works. Instead, a pirate knows the value of the good they have. They know it's worth more to their reputation in the community than $5-10 dollars. By setting a bounty on it, you'll just have others willing t…
I think the idea is that the original pirate takes on more risk, since whoever they pass the copy around to may trigger the alarm by getting the $5-10. The real question is how easily can this private key be removed from the content?
Re: Custos is using Bitcoin to turn digital pirates against each other
#8This is neat, but I can't help but feel it's not going to work. It would work if you encounter a movie that you wanted to watch, decide you want the money instead, and you report to Custos. This is not how piracy works. Instead, a pirate knows the value of the good they have. They know it's worth more to their reputation in the community than $5-10 dollars. By setting a bounty on it, you'll just have others willing t…
So the leaker will quickly find a way to remove the bitcoin watermark just like they do with traditional watermarks, instead of trying to cash out the coins.
The other counter-attack would be to distribute the scanning software to all the people who got the screeners so that there are a bunch of transactions and no way to know which one leaked vs. just took the $5. Probably too small an amount to get many takers, but it would muddy the waters even if only a few did it.
Re: Custos is using Bitcoin to turn digital pirates against each other
#9This is neat, but I can't help but feel it's not going to work. It would work if you encounter a movie that you wanted to watch, decide you want the money instead, and you report to Custos. This is not how piracy works. Instead, a pirate knows the value of the good they have. They know it's worth more to their reputation in the community than $5-10 dollars. By setting a bounty on it, you'll just have others willing t…
You don't "report" to CustOS directly, rather you simply move the money from one of the CustOS "bounty" private keys into one of your own.
Effectively it does the same thing but I think psychologically it's pretty different. For one thing you know that the bitcoin transaction will be very hard to trace (you can't be betrayed by your IP address or something like that) and you don't really rat anybody, you're just moving bitcoins. If you don't have any direct relationship with the original leaker (say, you downloaded the file through bittorent on some private tracker) there's really no incentive not to claim the bounty. It's free money.
I wonder what happens if a legitimate recipient of one of these copies decides to claim the bounty without actually leaking anything. Could they be in trouble? If people accuse them of leaking a copy and they show that they have control of the coins, will they be off the hook? Do they have to sign something that forbids them from using the key?
Re: Custos is using Bitcoin to turn digital pirates against each other
#10Hah, now some pirate is going to try and figure out how to get all of the private keys :P