Why Streaming Media Companies Should Know and Care About Residential Proxy Networks

This month commemorates the 20th anniversary of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, providing a valuable occasion to spotlight the risks confronting businesses and individuals in their digital endeavors. Initiated in 2004 through a partnership between the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA), Cybersecurity Month aims to inform and educate both businesses and individuals about the prevailing and emerging online threats they may encounter.

Over the past 18 months, Digital Element has noted a new set of threats perpetrated by bad actors who have been leveraging residential proxy IP networks for nefarious reasons.

Streaming media companies have been severely affected by this burgeoning industry. Numerous companies offer to make thousands, even tens of thousands of legitimate residential IPs available to parties looking to maintain privacy and anonymity online, and at very little cost. Should this matter to streaming media companies?

The answer is yes. Most streaming media companies are well aware that hundreds of VPN service providers offer use of their VPNs to consumers for the express purpose of circumventing content geo-restrictions. Many have engaged partners, such as Digital Element, to detect and block traffic that stems from a VPN.

But there is a new threat emerging: distributed VPNs. These are VPNs that purchase residential IP addresses from residential IP proxy networks in order to evade detection.

What is a Residential Proxy IP Network?

Residential Proxy IP networks are networks that use the IP addresses of consumers who sign up for any number of apps that pay them to share their bandwidth. Those apps become gateways for other clients of the app provider.

Put another way, residential proxy networks enable consumers with residential internet access to “sublet” their IP address to residential IP proxy networks, enabling their subscribers’ internet traffic to appear as if it is originating from the subleted IP address.

The networks rely on multiple strategies to build their pool of available residential IPs to proxy. Consumers play an important role in residential proxy IP networks, often unwittingly. The proxy networks tell consumers that by sharing their internet bandwidth, they can earn easy money. To get paid, all the consumer needs to do is install an app — Pawns.app, Honeygain, Peer2profit, Packet Stream to name a few — and start collecting passive income.

Some residential IP proxy networks deploy additional strategies to build their pool of IP addresses, such as providing an SDK to app developers who want to monetize their apps; convincing the provider of a browser extension to include their code; and leveraging  botnet to obtain residential IPs.

Once these networks have amassed a pool of residential IP addresses they then offer them to other entities that need access to them at scale (such as a VPN provider that needs to circumvent a streaming media company’s VPN-detection tool).

While residential proxy IP networks have been available for some time, what is changing is the exponential growth in both the number of networks and their scale. Certain proxy networks boast access to hundreds of thousands of residential IP addresses, which are made available to anyone willing to pay. This escalation demonstrates the need for heightened vigilance and robust security measures to combat the risks associated with these networks.

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Residential IP proxy networks pose a major challenge for streaming media companies that need to enforce access restrictions that are geo-location based. Personal VPN usage has been growing over the past few years, especially as consumers seek to circumvent the geo-restrictions imposed by streaming media companies.

Currently, streaming media platforms can leverage Digital Element’s VPN-proxy database to stop illegitimate traffic, but as mentioned above, residential IP proxy networks are the new frontier, allowing users to circumvent the streaming media company’s ability to block access to content. A VPN that has a residential IP proxy in one country can allow a user in another country to look like a legitimate user in the destination country.

Unfortunately, streaming media platforms can’t opt to block every IP address associated with a residential IP proxy network, as their actual customers may be the ones sharing their bandwidth with those networks. Consequently, categorically blocking such IP addresses may result in blocking paying customers.

How Digital Element Detects Residential IP Proxies

While there is not a simple solution, the first step is understanding how much of your incoming traffic is proxied residential IPs. Digital Element can provide you with this understanding by uncovering IP addresses that are linked to, or have history of, association with residential IP proxy networks or VPNs. With this information, streaming media providers can make informed decisions as they address the use of resi-proxies within their subscriber base.

IP addresses contain a lot of contextual data that help us predict the legitimacy of a user behind a device. That contextual data includes attributes such as activity level and IP stability. We know, for instance, that proxied IP addresses are shared by clients all over the world, so they are likely to be seen in multiple locations. That’s an important insight for clients; if an IP address remains consistently associated with a specific location for an extended period, it is less likely to be a proxy.

IP address intelligence data, such as activity levels and stability, can’t decipher between legitimate and illegitimate users alone, but it can provide much needed context that organizations need to make smart decisions to protect access to their content.

Digital Element’s Nodify Threat Intelligence solution provides critical contextual information to help identify inbound or outbound traffic tied to residential IP proxy networks, VPNs, and darknets.This insight helps streaming media companies protect that content from pirates and other people who don’t have access rights.

Focus on Residential IP Proxy Network Traffic this Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Cybercriminals, known for their continual ingenuity, will continue to devise novel ways to circumvent the streaming media industry’s licensing and content access protections. During this Cybersecurity Awareness Month, let’s make a deliberate effort to explore these cybercriminals’ latest tactics and tools amidst our hectic routines.

If you’d like to learn more about Nodify and residential IP proxy traffic detection, visit https://www.digitalelement.com/solutions/threat-intelligence/nodify/or reach out to sales@digitalenvoy.com

7 Benefits of Digital Rights Management

A big part of how today’s digital content economy functions is through digital rights management, where content owners use digital asset management systems and other DRM tools to require payment for access to their material.

While DRM tools are great for locking down content, they also deliver additional benefits to organizations that use them.

This article explores the benefits of implementing digital rights management software, and how DRM tools can help organizations across a wide spectrum of industries stay compliant with licensing agreements, protect profits, and keep sensitive information out of the hands of unauthorized users.

What is digital rights management?

Digital rights management (DRM) is technology created to prevent illegal use, theft, and distribution of digital content. DRM protects digital content by employing multiple strategies to eliminate methods for creating duplicates of protected files or sending those files to others.

DRM solutions are multifaceted and IP holders can configure them to meet a variety of use cases. Limitations that organizations can implement via DRM include limits on sharing, printing, forwarding, downloading, saving copies, editing, or maintaining access to content outside a defined (subscription or rental) window.

Why is it important to protect digital content?

Because of the open architecture of the internet, most files by default can be downloaded and shared freely. But marketable digital assets — those designed to be sold or licensed to businesses and consumers — cannot remain marketable under these conditions. And businesses creating these assets can’t remain solvent without a way to limit transmission by requiring purchase or subscription for access to this content.

The benefits of digital rights management

For rights holders and others on the income-earning side of digital content, digital rights management delivers numerous benefits. In some cases, it singlehandedly enables profitability and allows for the continued viability of digital business models.

1. Protection of intellectual property

First, digital rights management protects intellectual property.In an online-first (or even online-only) world, many businesses profit solely or primarily from digital goods. The most obvious example is TV and film content.

While you can still buy movies on disc, the numbers show that most people don’t anymore. From 2011 to 2021, the total number of annual physical video transactions dropped nearly 5 billion, from 6.1 to 1.2 billion.

Consumers now pay for a digital copy of that video content, or they use streaming services they’re already paying for.

Without digital rights management, those downloaded files could be transferred, stored, given away, resold— anything you can do with pictures and video, you could do with the latest movie or Netflix series.

For businesses that rely on sales of or subscriptions to their digital content, DRM is often a necessary component of protecting that intellectual property and the profits the IP generates.

2. Prevents unauthorized use of content

Even in today’s market where businesses have access to DRM systems, an estimated 20% of potential revenue on video content is still lost to piracy.

DRM in most cases prevents users from getting their hands on a usable, transferable high-fidelity copy of whatever file or digital asset is being protected. And by preventing users from stealing this content, DRM reduces the possibility of unauthorized uses of that content.

3. Safeguards income streams

Additionally, digital rights management helps to safeguard income streams. When users cannot gain free, illegal access, they are left with a choice, to either gain legal access (which typically involves payment) or to go without.

Preventing piracy through DRM ensures more people will pay for a digital asset when they have no other easy option to access it.

4. Educates users about copyright and intellectual property

Part of the problem with online piracy is that users don’t always understand how copyright and intellectual property laws work.

Many who pirate content have a cursory understanding that what they’re doing is vaguely unethical and maybe illegal. When users run into DRM limitations, those guardrails can help to further understand what’s okay and what’s not.

5. Ensures regulatory compliance

Digital rights management is a valuable tool in ensuring regulatory compliance. This is a part of why users in the U.K. and the U.S. have different experiences of Netflix (and virtually every other streaming service with a multinational presence).

Copyright law and content licensing are not universal. Different countries and regions have different regulations and laws, which content distributors must follow if they are to operate in a given country. Additionally, a copyright holder could license content to one group in North America but another in the EU.

Let’s imagine a TV show produced in Australia. Let’s say a local distributor has rights to an Aussie-produced show, but Netflix purchases the rights to distribute in the U.S. Netflix operates in Australia — but it cannot show this TV show there. DRM (specifically, geolocation) is one tool Netflix uses to limit content and ensure compliance.

But DRM isn’t limited to entertainment.

Healthcare records are protected, surrounded by a litany of local, national, and global regulations. DRM can be used to lock down electronic health records and ensure compliance with the relevant regulations.

6. Enables content localization and enhanced analytics

The other less visible side of geolocation within DRM is how it benefits both customers and content providers. By recognizing where a user is, global distributors can localize content to that user. In some cases this looks like a different default language, but it could cover numerous other elements, like branding, required display information (such as content ratings), and default currency.

7. Improved data security

Traditional data security is entirely credentials based. If a user can establish their credentials (via one or more factors of authentication), they can access the data. If a user cannot establish credentials, they cannot gain access.

This system works better when organizations use two-factor authentication (2FA) or multifactor authentication (MFA), but it focuses on only one part of the problem with data security, access.

Data security has at least two facets, though: access and control. Credentials grant access, but what if you want finer control on what users do with that access?

Digital rights management has a role to play here. Instead of leaving files wide open for anyone with credential access to use as they please, DRM protection could limit what those with access can do with the materials they can access.

For example, imagine a sensitive company document or one with confidential information. You may need to control access, allowing various users to have differing kinds of access, with some in each of these categories:

  • Full access (can download the file)
  • Edit access (can make changes to the file but cannot download)
  • View access (can see and use the file but cannot download or make changes)

This is one relatively simple example, and DRM technologies can go even deeper and more granular as needed.

Who benefits from digital rights management?

Digital rights management can be used in numerous contexts and for many purposes, so the list of groups and industries that can benefit from DRM is long and diverse.

  • Authors, composers, content creators: Anyone creating original works of intellectual property can benefit from DRM as they seek to monetize their creative works. (Implementing DRM software on the solo or solopreneur level can be logistically burdensome, though some DRM protections may be available through popular distribution networks.)
  • OTT and VOD digital media providers (streaming services): Preventing downloads and ensuring the right people access the right content is core to the business model.
  • Video games, mobile apps, and software applications: Limiting use to paying customers is vital to commercial viability in some software and video gaming contexts.
  • Businesses dealing with confidential documents, trade secrets, and otherwise proprietary or sensitive data
  • Digital music distributors and streaming services: Artists and copyright holders require payment for sales, downloads, and streams; DRM systems help contain music so that more of these streams are counted.

Of course, this is just a sample list; the real-world use cases are more numerous and more varied than those listed here.

Best practices for effective digital rights management

Implementing DRM effectively is not always simple. You need to do it in a way that meets your company’s needs and obligations without alienating customers through poor user experience or pushing end-users to alternate (including illegal) methods.

As you build a digital rights management strategy for your business, consider these best practices:

  1. Understand your customers, both internal and external: If DRM creates an obnoxious user experience, you’ll create an incentive to bypass it.
  2. Take a nuanced approach: Not every piece of content needs to be protected, and some pieces (free lead generators and advertising-oriented content) should never be.
  3. Realize the downsides: Especially on the consumer level, DRM on fully purchased content (rather than rented or subscription-based) can create a negative experience for users and could leave them without long-term access to something they believe they own.
  4. Prioritize scalability: Put yourself in a position where your company — and its DRM solutions — can grow.

Protect your intellectual property with Digital Element

Digital rights management is a powerful way to protect assets, reclaim lost sales, demonstrate compliance, and keep sensitive documents secure. Core to many DRM applications is a clear understanding of where users reside geographically.

Digital Element provides superior geolocation data and global IP solutions that power digital rights management on a global scale.

Ready to explore Digital Element’s trusted IP solutions for powerful digital rights management? Get started today with a pricing request.

Five Ways IP Intelligence Data Helps Broadcasters

Broadcasters serve a vital role in communities across the country. In addition to providing news and information to communities, broadcasters are instrumental to the economy. Per the National Broadcasters Association (NAB), broadcasting accounts for more than 2.28 million jobs in the U.S., and generates $1.03 trillion annually for the nation’s economy.

Given the economic and societal importance of broadcasters, it is vital for them to have accurate data that ensures they deliver the right content, while personalizing the user experience, and protecting the digital rights of content owners. Many have long considered Digital Element as the go-to source for accurate, global IP Intelligence data to help solve some of these challenges.

Let’s look at some of the most important use cases.

#1: Licensing & Copyrights Compliance

Copyright owners never give licensors carte blanche with their intellectual properties. The more people who see or use their audio or video content, the more royalties they earn. Those agreements are negotiated by region.

Digital Element’s IP location and intelligence data helps broadcasters ensure compliance with licensing and copyright agreements. Programming content is served to audiences based on country, state/region, city, and ZIP and postal code, enabling broadcasters to ensure users in prohibited or embargoed areas are restricted from accessing their digital assets. Furthermore, the ability to identify users hiding behind proxies in order to circumvent location restrictions helps broadcasters further protect rights’ holders.

#2: Ad Serving & Content Personalization

Every marketer is keen to display the appropriate content to the right user in order to increase engagement and, ultimately, ROI.

For example, by targeting postal codes near a tentpole event, such as a music festival or a major sporting event – marketers can deliver just-in-time ads to receptive audiences (think: transportation ads to the big event, or ads that drive traffic to a local eatery franchise). Ads that reach consumers at the right place and the right time deliver higher engagement and ROI.

IP Intelligence data is inherently non-invasive, enabling marketers to tap into a wide variety of contextual data so that they can deliver relevant content to the right audiences. . Additional insights, including demographic data, allow brands to target ads relating to a population in an area or region.

#3: Enhanced User Experience

Content delivery networks (CDNs) help ensure a positive user experience by delivering content at the optimal speed based on connection, or ideal format based on viewer’s device. They also process incoming requests and deliver content to any point on the network on demand, while managing entitlements and access to video assets based on the authentication of user rights and integration into the order process.

Digital Element’s IP Intelligence data automatically detects the connection type and speed of the device, helping the CDN to ensure content is delivered at the right speed and format for the device, providing customers with high-quality viewing and sound quality with no delays or buffering interruptions.

#4: Fighting Piracy

Piracy is a scourge that threatens the broadcasting sector, putting protected content, revenue, and even jobs at risk. In its 2021 report, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) estimates that online TV and film piracy costs the U.S. economy a minimum of  $29 billion in lost revenue each year, and robs the industry of hundreds and thousands of jobs.

Much of that piracy stems from consumers accessing content that’s outside of their markets — crime they can easily commit using any of the plethora of VPNs available to them. In their defense, leveraging VPN to access out-of-market content is so widespread and common that many consumers may not be aware that this behavior is illegal.

Digital Element’s director of product management discusses piracy at NAB 2022

Digital Element’s Nodify can determine whether inbound traffic is tied to a VPN, proxy, or a darknet, enabling broadcasters to block proxy and darknet traffic proactively, or prompt users for additional authentication (an important consideration as many people use VPNs for privacy or for work, and a global ban of VPN traffic will penalize many legitimate users).

Content pirates are switching tactics, switching from VPNs to residential IP proxy networks to circumvent detection. These are networks that pay consumers to share their internet across devices, and then enable other customers to “rent” that consumer traffic. However, Nodify can detect residential IP proxies, enabling broadcasters to block such traffic.

#5: Enhance Cybersecurity

Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) are important tools for broadcasters, but the rise of residential IP proxy networks has given nefarious actors a workaround. WAFs look at the IP address and geo-location of devices seeking to access a broadcaster’s web applications, and if they are residential and located within the right city or region, grant access. But without additional contextual data around network traffic, like that provided by Nodify, WAFs cannot distinguish between residential IP addresses that are real and those that are proxied.

We advise our clients that protecting their web applications requires a strong cybersecurity posture, especially considering the rise in VPN usage. Layering in threat intelligence insights, such as VPN intelligence data, can help protect your geo-filtering ecosystem; these insights allow streaming media companies to protect revenue by determining which connections pose risks, and prevent bad actors from circumvention activities by identifying anonymized connections, or connections from certain geographies.

Streaming Conundrum: How to Ensure Licensing Compliance and Tailor the User Experience

Most recently, as more people stayed at home as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, global streaming viewership shot up nearly 21 percent during the first three weeks of March, and the United States saw a 27 percent rise in streaming viewing hours. Prior to that the industry was already exhibiting very healthy growth, as streaming viewership in Q1 2019 was up 72 percent year-over-year, reflecting an increase of 49 percent over 2018.

For viewers, the convenience of choosing what to watch, when they want is very compelling. However, so is the proliferation of premium content available through increasingly popular OTT services such as Amazon Prime’s Subscription VOD (SVOD) that provides content not available elsewhere for a competitively low cost.

This programming revolution has gone hand in hand with the explosion of devices that are capable of streaming high-quality video. Better quality mobile screens, the proliferation of low-cost data plans, and the increasing number of Wi-Fi hotspots are all fueling this growth. People are no longer viewing through a single TV in their households. They can access content through a variety of tablets and smartphones wherever they want.

This new video landscape presents some interesting challenges for broadcasters. As people are watching more content on multiple devices while on the move, broadcasters have to be mindful of compliance with licensing, copyright agreements and cultural differences. Broadcasters need the ability to grant access where viewing is permissible and restrict access where it is not, all while making the end user experience as seamless as possible.

IP Data is Vital for Content Providers

In a market where legislation and rights can rapidly change, the serving of content to the right user is far from simple. And, the consequences for not protecting assets can adversely affect revenues, produce costly penalties for non-compliance, and damage a brand’s reputation for blocking access when it should be allowed.

IP data is vital for content providers to comply with digital rights licenses, either at a country or regional level. Yet, many are using poor approaches that restrict users who should be able to view content, while allowing access to those who should not. The deployment of accurate IP Intelligence and geolocation technology negates this issue because it accurately identifies the user’s location. Working with less accurate data providers can create false restrictions, leading to disgruntled consumers.

Additionally, accurate IP-derived connection speed data helps ensure streaming content is optimized for the viewing platform and aids in eliminating the technical problems associated with delivering video or music over a range of devices and connectivity types.

Intelligently Managing Web Traffic and Localizing Content

Content providers often cater to global audiences when delivering streaming, news, ecommerce and gaming services. This makes tailoring content to specific locations crucial for delivering the best web experiences for their users. Being able to feed IP intelligence into content delivery operations means you can offer personalized, location-specific content experiences while managing global web traffic levels intelligently. Granular, location-based control over content delivery enables content localization, enhanced analytics and the ability to manage access and digital rights in line with national regulations and traffic patterns.

Varnish Software has partnered with Digital Element to deliver IP intelligence that’s integrated into caching technology, for enabling ultra high speed delivery of personalized, location-based web content.

Varnish Enterprise powers content delivery and streaming for some of the world’s largest streaming services and websites, such as Hulu, Twitch, CBC and Sky. Its pioneering caching technology puts content closer to users while protecting critical infrastructure from the effects of huge demand. As the leading caching technology stack for enterprises, Varnish Enterprise brings unparalleled performance, resilience and flexibility to content delivery operations such as live streaming, video on demand and dynamic web pages. Integrating the industry’s most accurate geolocation data provides an easy-to-use and always up-to-date service that you can query to retrieve location information linked to an IP address.

To get more information on solving the streaming conundrum for your company, download the whitepaper “IP Intelligence and the Digital Broadcast Revolution” here.

How to Use Geolocation Data to Enhance Global Broadcast Services

January 2, 2019

In September, we at Spicy Mango announced our partnership with Digital Element to provide technical architecture and services to integrate its geolocation data into the Over-the- Top (OTT) platforms of some of the world’s most prominent broadcasters. For those who aren’t too familiar, location data is hugely useful to video providers and gives us as technologists a method to “translate” an IP address into a whole bunch of valuable information.

As an example, in modern handsets, laptops and tablets, GPS receivers extract your latitude and longitude, then pass this information back as a city, region or country code. However, in older devices, GPS receivers aren’t so common. Even in modern handsets, with privacy at the forefront of everyone’s minds these days, it’s a dwindling few that give applications and services access to their device location anymore.

Why Location Data Is Needed for Video Distribution

So why do we need geolocation data and services such as this? For a service provider or operator of video platforms, having global geographic-rights and entitlement-management capabilities are critical. Studios and broadcasters issue content to providers, such as Netflix or Hulu, with rules. These rules determine where and when the content may be viewed by the consumer (that’s you and me). Seems like a trifling issue, but the reality is that the penalties for a breach of the rules are severe.

These rich data sets are wrapped around interfaces that allow applications to provide an IP address, and have it translated to the data set demonstrated earlier. By using IP-address translation services, we can achieve almost the same results as we’d get with a GPS receiver, but without the pinpoint accuracy. In fact, for a video operator or service provider, a city or country is often only needed to be able to enforce these commercial and legal rules.

IP-Based Data Is Useful Beyond Geographic Rights Management

We’ve covered the why and the how, but what else can we do with geolocation data? Alongside its most frequently found use case, location information can serve us well in the wider context of the video distribution platform―when used to provide services, features or capabilities that are tailored to regions or markets. With that in mind, here are five other things that your location data can do for you on a day-to-day basis:

  1. Control Service Access

In many services, users are able to access the applications, even registering for accounts or perhaps in the worst cases, creating subscriptions, only to discover that at the point of playback, content-rights restrictions prevent playback. This can be hugely frustrating for consumers. Location data can be leveraged way before the entitlements check to verify that your users are in the right place to begin their journey with you.

  1. Personalize Catalogs

Finding a piece of content in catalogs―usually after a good old search―only to discover that your location prevents access is one of the most frustrating things consumers often encounter. We’d think in today’s age, that this shouldn’t be happening, but it still does. Location data can be queried and used at the point of catalog presentation―ensuring that only the video assets your users can view are presented before your carousels (or pages) are rendered. This is a great way to present country- or region-specific catalogs.

  1. Localize Messaging

The success of deploying and operating a truly international service involves meeting the needs of consumers wherever they may be. Location data can be used to tailor the application or portal to local requirements. It can be used to present translated text or information tables and localized offers or content, as well as player or play-back messaging. This is a refreshing approach to hard coding applications and portals in a handful of languages.

  1. Control Features

It’s not uncommon to want to control features or capabilities by territory. In the case of large multi-national events, features in the service such as download to play offline, instant restart or DVR may be subject to international restrictions as a result of licensing or partnership deals. Use location data to restrict capabilities based on location. When coupled with device-management platform technologies, the ability to enable or disable features based on location or other defined parameters requires no more than a simple change of a toggle in a console―not distribution of territory-version-specific applications.

  1. Build Reports

Location data can also be used to help build detailed reports, for example, where you might see the most activity in your service. By collating city or country codes and feeding these into analytics tools or proprietary interfaces, you can build accurate heat maps of where requests originate. If you’re looking for a way to determine the next hot territory that’s desperate to use your service, this could be it. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, use the data to spot abnormal traffic patterns―comparing this to volumes of requests or data hitting your APIs and interfaces. You’ll soon spot spammers or Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) wannabe hackers.

The real-life applications don’t stop here. There is a lot you can do with geolocation data when you understand how to tie it to core services and functions inside of your video service or platform. Used correctly, it can be an incredibly powerful tool to enable true personalization and regionalization of services, as well as support the enforcement of rights.

Guest Author: Chris Wood, Chief Technology Officer, Spicy Mango

Latin American Pay-TV Operators Gain More Data Insights to Strengthen Digital Rights Management

Mar. 14, 2018

The rise of the internet has revolutionized the broadcast industry. The days of a fixed program schedule delivered through a small number of terrestrial TV stations are long gone. Instead viewers have access to over-the-top (OTT) and video-on-demand services (VOD) and have become their own program schedulers, with a vast array of content at their fingertips. This programming revolution has gone hand in hand with the explosion of devices that are capable of streaming high-quality video. People are no longer viewing through a single TV in their households. They can access content through a variety of tablets and smartphones wherever―and whenever―they want.

This new video landscape presents some interesting challenges for pay-TV operators. As people are watching more content on multiple devices while on the move, these companies have to be mindful of compliance with licensing, copyright agreements and cultural differences. They need the ability to grant access where viewing is permissible and restrict access where it is not, all while making the end user experience as seamless as possible.

In addition to location, the detection of anonymous proxies and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) is becoming mandatory for any company looking to address the evolving challenges when it comes to providing a reliable digital rights management (DRM) solution. More companies across the video market spectrum―from studios to telecom companies to technology solutions providers―are looking for additional data parameters to help strengthen their DRM activities while still protecting consumers’ privacy and preserving their video viewing experiences.

“Our clients needed a solution that combined geolocation, VPN and proxy detection so that they could make use of content from studios from which they had the rights,” said Ricardo Lima, director of BOLD S.A.

Headquartered in Uruguay with a focus on the Latin American pay-TV market of middle-sized operators, BOLD has been at the forefront of providing the most innovative solutions and products customized to companies’ unique needs in this space. BOLD will integrate the NetAcuity EdgeTM database, which includes validated, partner-contributed geographic postcode-level data, into its content manager system to help customers comply with industry requirements for video distribution. Additionally, the company will also employ anonymous proxy and VPN databases to help add even more security for its DRM solutions.

IP data is vital for content providers to comply with digital rights licenses, either at a country or regional level. Yet, many are using poor approaches that restrict users who should be able to view content, while allowing access to those who should not. The deployment of accurate IP geolocation technology negates this issue because it accurately identifies the user’s location. Working with less accurate data providers can create false restrictions, leading to disgruntled consumers.

There are many unscrupulous users who try to access content they should not be viewing by masking their location, using proxies or VPNs. Pay-TV operators need to utilize premium IP solutions to ensure they are not falling foul of nefarious methods of internet access.

Advanced proxy databases can identify the type of proxy―such as anonymous―or if the traffic is coming from a hosting center. In addition, it can ascertain from where the proxy emanates, such as a Tor exit, Tor relay, the cloud or through a VPN. Data should be refreshed daily to ensure it is sound. This breadth and depth of this level of proxy information provides the ability to identify more suspicious connections and minimize false positives, enabling the broadcaster to make more informed decisions about allowing or denying access to content.

BOLD has a varied group of clients in Latin America which have continued to show their loyalty through the years, among them NUEVO SIGLO and Montecable. With the integration of the NetAcuity datasets, BOLD will help its clients deliver more accurate and reliable video DRM throughout Latin America.

Read the full press release to learn more details on how BOLD will help pay-TV operators in the LATAM region strengthen their DRM activities.