From: "Rich Gauszka" 

of course they described the watermarking tool as "consumer friendly"


http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/31575/97/

Los Angeles (CA) - Philips today announced a "forensic"
watermarking tool for video content which allows copyright holders to
follow the path of pirated content back to a specific PayTV subscriber.

The technology, called VTrack, uses an "imperceptible and indelible
unique identifier" embedded into the video signal, which can be used
to determine a potential pirate of video content.

While Philips claims that VTrack is "consumer friendly" and that
it will enable content providers to "confidently broadcast more high
definition and early release material that is typically at higher risk for
piracy," the firm believes that its approach is strong enough to have
an impact on mass piracy. "By utilizing watermarking technology in
set-top boxes, content pirates will expose themselves to greater legal risk
if they attempt large-scale redistribution of improperly obtained
content," the firm said in a prepared statement.

According to the developer, the watermarks "cannot be separated from
the content" and cannot be "altered". Pirated content can be
traced back to the original PayTV subscriber "even after severe
quality degradation of the video such as scaling, cropping, compression and
camcorder copying."

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