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Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

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Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#241
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Binging makes the pacing of slow shows way more tolerable.

Yes, I was wondering why they sent 4 episodes for review. Then I watched the first episode and I saw why...nothing is going to happen until the 4th episode. They've been teasing us with white walkers since season 1. And those dragons too...they were born in season 1 or 2 and they've hardly killed anyone yet. I guess I'm a sucker for the never-ending suspense...best show on tv.

Friend that have read the books say this is the same problem in the books. Nothing really happens. Things drag on and on.

I love watching GoT due to the high-quality production mixed with nudity and occasional awesome scenes. But I've given up on really enjoying much of the plot progress.

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#242
post #94
post #85

Or there's another reason not to use a better tracking system: HBO is ok with leaks. The more the show gets leaked, the larger the audience. Some portion of that audience will pay for HBO, and hopefully stick around for the other HBO shows. HBO has been remarkably progressive on the piracy front. It's also only the first four episodes: enough to get you hooked enough to want to see the end. Of course, torrents are al…

> HBO has been remarkably progressive on the piracy front. I'm not suggesting that's not accurate, but I'd love to better understand your sources for that, as my single point of anecdotal evidence suggests otherwise. About six or seven years ago we torrented a single episode of an HBO series (I forget which—we were cable-cutters and it wasn't available to rent online at the time) and while we knew it was wrong, it wa…

In the US these notices get spammed a lot. You quickly learn to use a VPN or seedbox or whatever. Personally, I use put.io even when the stuff is on Netflix. I get higher quality versions (or I get to pick the quality), I get subtitles (Netflix hates deaf people, even on "Netflix Original Series" where you'd think they have the rights.) I get flexibility. (Play anywhere, fix audio levels, fix brightness, etc.)

And it's actually pretty easy, just using my phone. I go to a torrent site, search. Longpress the Magnet URI. Open with Put.io App. Switch to Put.io (transfers are instantly done for popular files). Turn on Chromecast and hit play.

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#243
post #3

I guess we all agree that watermarking the viewable content instead of thinking about securing/signing the whole data file was not so smart in the first place. When I download a video from the Google Play Store I can only watch it for 24 hours or so. I thought there was already a highly protected digital signature/encryption system involved. Why is that not used for reporter previews?

Anything that is viewable cannot be secured. The play store can stop you watching the content after 24 hours on the play store . It cannot possibly stop you recording your screen while it's playing and saving it forever Preventing leaks is basically impossible, but making them traceable is possible using watermarks

Sounds quite reasonable, actually. Haven't thought about that. Thanks!

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone who was going to get hooked on Game of Thrones is hooked, and anyone who is still on the fence isn't likely to torrent the leaked episodes. Incompetence is a better explanation, I think.

Do you not realize how complex the workflow pipelines are for a film or TV series of any kind? And how shows involving a lot of special effects like GoT are orders of magnitude more complex? For the publicity and marketing side of things we like to send actors out on talk shows to talk about character and costumes and drama and so on, and maybe show a few shots of a giant camera on a greenscreen stage to talk about h…

I am hooked on GoT, my response to HBO is thus:

"Dear HBO, as a subscriber to HBO since 1983, I am saddened for this leak. As a huge fan of GoT, I am delighted, thank you, I will still watch all episodes in HD and DVR them every Sunday."

---

HBO should allow for HBO GO users to see the whole season at a time - the same way netflix does.

There is no reason to meter out the story. Netflix dumping a whole season on the wire when it gets released is the best release method ever.

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#245

Next iteration would be changing the length of each scene by a few milliseconds. One can count that the first episode holds s=18 scenes. Each scene lasts several minutes. Once again each copy can be made shorter or longer by a couple milliseconds, providing a unique fingerprint for each version sent. This sort of thing makes it hard for me to take any of the article seriously. The author doesn't seem to know the firs…

Anyone who was going to get hooked on Game of Thrones is hooked, and anyone who is still on the fence isn't likely to torrent the leaked episodes. Incompetence is a better explanation, I think.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#246
post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entertainment industry operates some 40 actual satellites that were put up into space using actual rockets, engages in petabyte-scale asset management as a matter of course, and constantly reworks its content acquisition pipelines as new digital and analog technologies come to market. We're a little bit more technologically sophisticated than you seem to imagine.

>reworks its content acquisition pipelines as new digital and analog technologies come to market. I would have gladly paid them to watch a stream at 8pm last night, yet somehow that still isn't an option in 2015. Instead I ended up with 4 episodes from a torrent at 8:15. Tell me more about embracing new technology as it comes to market.

In this case there's someone else who paid for you not to be able to stream it: Apple.

HBO Now is Apple TV exclusive for 3 months.

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#247
post #80

Everyone in her claims that there are mechanisms to add non-visual watermarks into both video & audio, anyone have any suggestions as to what products / systems to use so this can be implemented? Minus writing one yourself (like writing your own framework, you don't know all the gotcha's of an expert)

These are products in use by the industry for video http://www.civolution.com/ http://www.vobileinc.com/technology/

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#248

Next iteration would be changing the length of each scene by a few milliseconds. One can count that the first episode holds s=18 scenes. Each scene lasts several minutes. Once again each copy can be made shorter or longer by a couple milliseconds, providing a unique fingerprint for each version sent. This sort of thing makes it hard for me to take any of the article seriously. The author doesn't seem to know the firs…

Something similar to the described algorithm is actually implemented in AACS as traitor tracking.

Re: Game of Thrones leak and watermark: a stupid tracking system

#249
post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought HBO Now (I'm not a subscriber) allowed one to stream 5 minutes after air?

I remember hearing lots of noise about them offering a stand alone streaming service, I was even excited to try it out and see how it handled the traffic of a season premiere (HBOgo has been notably terribly on this front) I googled around for about 15 minutes and was only able to find news articles announcing it. I'd be happy to pay them for what i've already watched if anyone could direct me to a sign-up for this e…

Here's the site: https://order.hbonow.com/

I don't have an iOS device or their specific supported ISP, so I haven't signed up.

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