Destiny Media Tech Inc (DSNY)

[tedpeele]

Yes, I have the email. I was waiting so anyone on the fence might get out first, but I'll just avoid all the drama and post it now:


<<Ok, so based on my understanding and a visit to the page, here is how this thing works:

1. HTML 5 offers the ability to stream video without a plugin via the <video> tag. However, you don't get granular control over things and is why folks opt to distribute in a standard format that usually requires a plug in, so that you can reliably stream HD and things like that.

2. Cliptstream is making use of a <canvas> tag that I don't know anything about. I believe their patents have something to do with capitalizing on this tag, or at least the patents that are not related to their plugin. They'll likely get a patent for their plugin, it's the other stuff I don't think they'd get a patent for. It would be like trying to patent the <video> tag that everyone uses.

3. If someone wants to distribute their video, and that someone also doesn't care if that video is then stolen and posted/streamed all over the place, then no plugin is required based on my understanding. But HTLM5 offers this, and everyone's already adopted Flash and other plugins, or just native RSTP streaming like You Tube.

4. If someone wants to distribute their video and also lock it down so that it remains watermarked, and also cannot be copied to other servers, then it's necessary for the end user to have or install that plugin before watching the video. This keeps things like screen scrapers or other plugins from downloading the video in a way that can be freely redistributed. You can still just use your camcorder to make a copy of the video, which is what a lot of these pirates do anyway.

So what's the market for this?

It seems they've invented their own consumer problem statement here. We all watch videos online every day - is it a problem for you? Not really. When I'm watching a youtube video I don't really care whether or not it's protected from copying, nor do I much care about whether it's in HD or not - and YouTube has an HD option. The people that care about videos being copied, are Television and Movie distribution corps.

Netflix and Hulu have their own controls over this as well. If you're a Netflix or Hulu customer, do you care whether or not you have a plugin installed? Not really, and most would prefer a plugin that's geared towards how that site streams things. In other words, I'd feel more comfortable streaming Netflix through the Netflix software, rather than trying to get it to work through Hulu or native tools. Imagine you launch a video from Netflix and it says - hey, you can watch the video in the browser if you want to, but we recommend using our player. What are you going to do? You're going to most likely download the player so you get the recommended experience and bells and whistles of the plugin.



So who benefits from this?

My guess is that the only people that benefit from it, is their current customer stack - say, Lionsgate or whatever. Essentially media distribution to fight piracy. I don't see benefits to the end user, and I highly doubt that Netflix, Hulu, You Tube, or anyone else is going to see this as a benefit to them above and beyond what they're already doing.

From a Lionsgate perspective - if they can reduce piracy by 5%, that equates to xxx dollars so there's really no downside for them. But does it solve a problem for the average consumer? My belief is no - they've invented a problem statement and hyped it in a way to mislead consumers and placate their existing and small customer base.
Here's another thing to note. They talk about security all over the place - because that sounds useful to the end user. What they mean is piracy prevention, which is useful for the distribution companies but doesn't mean anything to the average consumer. Again - very misleading, and downright shameful that they're trying to market it this way.

A Lionsgate has hundreds (thousands) of distribution markets. The biggest problem right now is overseas. China steals literally everything. So even if one little distributor in say, Finland started using this (and they probably resell to other smaller distributors), that cuts the number of pirated copies down by some miniscule amount.

The goal is to make sure someone doesn't pay for a movie, then copy it and post it all over China. The less this happens, the more money they make - plain and simple. It won't stop piracy or even put a dent in it. It will make more people pay for it than would have without it.

5% would be an outlandish number. More realistically something like .00001 percent. In china, 9 out of 10 copies of Windows are pirated according to Steven Ballmer. It's so bad, Microsoft is now giving them a free upgrade to Windows 10!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/18/us-microsoft-china-iduskbn0me06a20150318

Notice that this site has an embedded video? And I didn't even need a clipstream plugin! Imagine that >>