Trace a leaked video with a forensic watermark

A forensic watermark is invisible. Every time someone watches the video, their copy of the stream is marked in a way that’s unique to that viewing. If a copy turns up somewhere it shouldn’t, you can find out where it came from.

Turn it on

1. Open the video (workspace admins).
2. In Forensic watermark, switch on Mark every viewer’s copy.
3. Pellio prepares the marked copy, which takes a few minutes. The card says Ready when every new viewing is marked.

A new file for the video gets its marked copy automatically. Your own previews in the dashboard aren’t marked.

Trace a leaked copy

1. In the same card, choose Trace a leaked copy… and upload the file you found.
2. Pellio compares it with the video and shows who watched that copy: their email or site user when known, when they watched, and the IP address and browser they used.

If the evidence isn’t clear enough, the result says Not sure and lists the closest matches. The uploaded copy is deleted once it’s been checked.

What it works on

• Downloads of the stream and copies re-encoded at another size or quality.
• Copies that start where the video starts. A copy that was cut, sped up or is very short may not be traceable.

Privacy

For each viewing of a watermarked video, Pellio keeps who watched (when known), when, and their IP address and browser, for one year, so leaks can be traced.