IBM and Audible Magic Team to Protect Video Content

Fast, accurate identification of video content uploaded by website visitors is necessary to protect and properly compensate copyright owners. Audible Magic has integrated the IBM software into its newly-available CopySense A/V ID service, which combines Audible Magic's leading audio-based identification solutions with IBM's video image-based identification solution for unparalleled accuracy and reliability. Combining both technologies continues to reinforce Audible Magic's position as the adopted standard by Web 2.0 companies, such as Google, MySpace, Microsoft, Veoh, Dailymotion, AOL, Crackle, Nokia and MTVN, which enable new, creative business models that protect and monetize syndication of media content on the internet.

Audible Magic selected IBM after more than a year of rigorous testing and evaluation with more than a dozen video identification solutions offered by other companies. Comparative tests were completed using more than a quarter million real world user-generated video clips against a reference set of more than 50,000 videos from copyright owners. IBM's technology was clearly superior in the key measures of identification rate and the goal of zero false positives.

Audible Magic also announced its intention to integrate the IBM software into its CopySense Appliance that is sold to universities and internet service providers (ISPs). The appliance when installed in a network passively monitors peer-to-peer traffic to identify copyrighted works for revenue reporting or acceptable use policy compliance. The company recently was awarded a patent covering detection of unauthorized transmission of content over a network.

"Protecting the rights of video copyright owners has become a big concern in the industry," said Dick Anderson, IBM general manager for media and entertainment. "The combination of IBM and Audible Magic technology combined with the deep relationships both have in the industry enables creative solutions to be offered that bring together both the content owners and content distributors."

Developed by IBM Researchers, the new video fingerprint software technology complements Audible Magic's audio fingerprinting technology and provides highly accurate, reliable positive identification results. The technology was developed as a result of InnovationJam 2006, when IBM chose to invest $100 million to explore ten new business opportunities. One of the investment opportunities was dubbed "DigitalMe," and focused on providing people simple, secure access and control over their personal digital lives, such as video piracy protection.

"Since our inception, we have focused on combining highly accurate and cutting edge technology with high quality service for our customers," said Vance Ikezoye, president and CEO of Audible Magic. "Our venture with IBM to jointly develop content identification products using proven and unique technologies from both companies is directly in line with this goal. As we work together to bring additional IBM technologies to market, we will keep our focus on the things that matter most to our customers -- accuracy, state-of-the-art performance and monetization enabling solutions." -IBM