The advent of digital technology has seen the creative industry in India grow extraordinarily, making video content one of the key drivers in entertainment, education, and the dissemination of information. India, renowned worldwide for its films and the burgeoning digital content industry, faces significant challenges in securing the protection of intellectual property rights. In this vibrant yet fighting breed of industry, video watermarking emerges as a priority technology to protect creative work.
Universally, video watermarking enables tracing of infringements of content by inserting hidden or visible identifiers. In India, knowledge of video watermarking is now critical for content creators and distributors, and holders of digital rights, as it is playing a significant role in fighting piracy and unauthorised circulation of material.
The Growing Digital Content Landscape in India
The digital advancement of India has revolutionised the process of both creating, distributing and enjoying content in India. India’s massive pool of more than 700 million internet users, in conjunction with further development of digital infrastructures, has resulted in an explosion of video streaming platforms, social media content and digital entertainment. The output that comes from Bollywood annually is more than a thousand films, and several thousand more come from regional film industries. Further, the digital content industry of the country, including YouTube creators, OTT services, as well as social media platforms, has the potential to grow to approximately ₹ 15000 crore by 2025.
India’s gigantic digital content universe is at dire risk because of piracy. Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) reveal that the Indian entertainment industry loses, on an annual basis, nearly ₹18,000 crore due to piracy. In such circumstances, video watermarking plays a vital technical role that enables content owners to detect and trace, authenticate, and submit strong evidence in legal cases of unauthorised use.
Understanding Video Watermarking Technology
Hidden in video content are identifying signals, which cannot be easily eliminated without degrading the video’s quality noticeably. These digital watermarks can be:
Visible watermarks:
Logo, text or graphic detailing over video footage with the intention of assertively listing the owner of the content. While visible watermarks may interfere with the fun of viewing content, from the very moment the suspected watermark is observed, the source of the content is immediately known.
Invisible watermarks:
A data embedded within the video stream, but not viewable, but identifiable to certain software tools. They can track ownership claims, distribution records, or individualised identifiers among their content.
Robust watermarks:
Developed to be stable across processes such as compression, format shifts, and cropping, so that after changes, any ownership details about the content are guaranteed to maintain their status.
Fragile watermarks:
Set up so as to destroy if the text is even touched up in any way, which can be taken as proof of interference with the work.
Legal Framework for Copyright Protection in India
The tides are changing in the Indian copyright protection system, as it has been made stronger recently to properly handle problems that threaten to emerge from digitalisation. Technological measures of protection, such as watermarking, are identified in the 2012 amendment of the Copyright Act of 1957. Amended Section 65A prohibits the tampering of technological protection measures, while Section 65B protects rights management information whereby such includes watermarking, from tampering.
The Information Technology Act, 2000, joins the cause of providing copyright protection by neutralising cyber threats to intellectual property. However, enforcement challenges remain significant. In the case of copyright infringement, Indian courts now recognise digitally recorded proof (with watermarks) more often. In important judgments, such as the Shree Krishna International v. The courts in the Shree Krishna International v. Tata Sky Ltd. case ratified the use of technological protection measures for illustrating copyright infringement.
Benefits of Video Watermarking for Indian Content Creators
Video watermarking evokes major advantages for India’s rich collection of content creators:
Deterrence against piracy:
The use of visible watermarks deters casual piracy based on the fact that illicit copies appear less alluring to dishonest pirates, while the presence of invisible watermarks casts doubt on the pirates’ capacity to trace content owners.
Evidence in legal proceedings:
Evidence from watermarked content indicates ownership and infringement that forms strong legal cases in India’s typically long legal processes.
Source identification:
When leaked material is found, watermarks can provide actual information for the origin of a leak, showing whether it is from production, distribution or exhibition sources.
Audience analytics:
We gain information about how the content is consumed in different parts of India from a state-of-the-art watermarking system that helps creators tinker with their distribution plans.
Revenue protection:
The use of video watermarking reduces illegal sharing, ensuring appropriate income for those creating in a marketplace where piracy is often triggered by price sensitivity.
Affordable Video watermarking solutions have opened copyright protection in India’s regional markets to small creators who were previously limited in access.
Conclusion
The fast-rising tempo of India’s digital transformation has made video watermarking a key implement of protection against the challenges confronting the creative business. The tactics used to secure these against such thefts, thus, must be improved to respond to changing strategies of content theft. The successful introduction of video watermarking in India depends on stakeholders coordinating to develop and enforce an industry standard and procedures.
Doverunner is unique because it provides clever watermarking solutions customised for the unique obstacles Indian creators face. Doverunner interfaces next-generation technology defences with user-friendly platforms to safeguard content creators from the A-list Bollywood conglomerates, to regional filmmakers. Beyond protecting intellectual property, their watermarking system produces meaningful data used to guide effective distribution strategies for India’s diverse audience in disparate languages and cultures.
The realisation of India’s content creation capabilities lies in global recognition of intellectual property safeguarding, such as video watermarking. Implementing these advances requires legal protections for digital evidence, increasingly being real hard-hitting anti-piracy measures and continuing education to demonstrate the economic toll piracy has on artists.
Video watermarking becomes imperative in conjunction with India’s technology leadership in the realm of digital, towards establishing a sustainable, inclusive creative economy that pays the artists and protects the treasure of Indian stories in the digital world.
