Digital watermarking embeds hidden digital information, called a digital watermark, into media files such as audio, video, and images. This process does not affect the visual quality or integrity of the file. Digital watermarking is used for scenarios such as copyright protection, leak tracing, and file verification. This topic describes how to add digital watermarks to video files to protect your copyright.
How it works
How copyright watermarks work
You can embed custom text information that is invisible to the naked eye into a video. After the video is distributed or processed, you can extract and identify the embedded text to confirm the video's copyright ownership.
How tracing watermarks work
During playback, pre-generated A and B stream segments with the same time interval are combined in real time to create a unique manifest (M3U8) file. The sequence of the A and B stream segments in the file represents a unique identifier.
Scenarios
Digital watermarking technology effectively resists tampering attempts and helps confirm copyright infringement. It protects the copyright of video and image content, facilitates content monetization, and safeguards the interests of both content providers and carriers.
Copyright protection: Use the video copyright watermark technology. You can add a video copyright watermark, such as a unique ID or text label, to your copyrighted videos. In case of a copyright ownership dispute, you can use extraction and identification tools to retrieve the ID and confirm ownership.
Tracing leaks from institutions: Use the video copyright watermark technology. You can provide different institutions with copyrighted copies that have unique watermarks embedded. If a video is leaked, you can detect the watermark information to identify the institution from which the leak originated.
NoteTracing leaks from institutions is a scenario for tracing copyright leaks on a small scale. For example, tracing is required during the distribution of a master film copy. A film distributor sends copies of the film to several or dozens of institutions. If a copy is leaked and illegally distributed, the copyright holder needs to identify the source of the leak to stop it and hold the responsible parties accountable.
Tracing leaks from users: Use the video tracing watermark (A/B stream watermark) technology. This technology generates a unique video stream associated with a user by combining A/B stream segments. If video piracy occurs, you can detect the watermark information to trace the user who leaked the video and hold them accountable.
NoteA common way videos are leaked is when end users download or record them using technical means. Digital watermarking technology can trace the user to find out who is responsible for the pirated leak.
Benefits
Visually appealing: Digital watermarks are imperceptible and do not affect the normal use of the media.
Content security: Watermark information cannot be directly perceived, which makes it difficult to attack. The embedded watermark information is specially encoded, making it hard to tamper with or replace.
Accurate extraction: The specially encoded watermark information ensures accuracy during extraction. The information extracted using watermarking technology is unique and accurate.
High robustness: Watermarks are robust and can withstand various common types of piracy attacks, such as video compression, rotation, resolution conversion, frame rate conversion, screen recording, cropping, and scaling.
Watermark encryption: The specially encoded and encrypted watermark information is difficult to tamper with, which ensures extraction accuracy.
Features
Feature | Description | Related API operations | Console operations |
Video copyright watermark | Embeds specified invisible text information into a video. The embedded digital watermark is hidden in the media file and does not affect the video's visual quality or integrity. After the video is distributed or processed, the embedded text information can still be extracted and identified. | Not supported | |
Video tracing watermark | Transcodes a video (only videos of 3 minutes or longer are supported) to output two HLS files: stream A and stream B. Different tracing watermark content is embedded into the two streams. When a user requests playback, segments from stream A and stream B are randomly selected and combined in real time to generate a tracing watermark M3U8 file that is unique to the user's identity. If video piracy occurs, you can detect the watermark information to trace the user who leaked the video and hold them accountable. | Not supported |
Billing
For more information about billing, see Digital watermarks.
Usage
You can add or extract watermarks as needed. The following sections describe the end-to-end process from adding a watermark to extracting it.
Use a video copyright watermark
The method for adding a copyright watermark to an image is the same as for a video. The following procedure uses a video copyright watermark as an example.
Add a video copyright watermark
Before you distribute a video, add a copyright watermark to the video file as follows:
Submit a job to add a copyright watermark to the video.
You can call the SubmitCopyrightJob operation to submit the video URL and the watermark information to embed. After the watermark is added, the new video is saved to the location specified by the Output parameter. For more information about the operation, see Add a copyright watermark to a video.
You can retrieve the result of a video copyright watermarking job.
You can call the QueryCopyrightJobList operation to query the status and result of the video copyright watermark job. The response contains the location where the new video is saved. For more information about the operation, see Query the list of video copyright watermark jobs.
If you specified a webhook address in the previous step, a request that contains the execution result is sent to the specified webhook address after the job is complete. The callback result contains the location where the new video is saved.
Extract the copyright watermark from a video file
When you need to confirm copyright ownership, you can extract the copyright watermark from the video file as follows:
Submit a job to extract the copyright watermark.
You can call the SubmitCopyrightExtractJob operation to submit information about the video file from which you want to extract the watermark. For more information about the operation, see Extract a copyright watermark from a video.
Retrieves the result of the video copyright information extraction task.
You can call the QueryCopyrightExtractJob operation to retrieve the result of the copyright watermark extraction job. The result contains the watermark information. For more information about the operation, see Query a copyright watermark extraction job.
If you specified a webhook address in the previous step, a request that contains the execution result is sent to the specified webhook address after the extraction job is complete. The execution result contains the watermark information.
Use a video tracing watermark
Generate A/B streams
Submit a job to generate A/B stream tracing watermarks.
You can call the SubmitTraceAbJob operation to submit the video URL and the A/B stream watermark information to embed. After the watermark is added, the new video is saved to the location specified by the Output parameter. For more information about the operation, see Add an A/B stream tracing watermark to a video.
Retrieve the result of the A/B stream job.
You can call the QueryTraceAbJobList operation to query the status and result of the A/B stream job. You can query by task ID or media ID. For more information about the operation, see Query the list of video tracing watermark A/B stream jobs.
Request a unique M3U8 sequence during playback
Submit a job to generate an M3U8 tracing watermark.
When a user requests playback, you can call the SubmitTraceM3u8Job operation to assemble a unique M3U8 watermarked video for the user to play. You can use the media ID of the previously generated A/B streams. For more information about the operation, see Add an M3U8 tracing watermark to a video.
Retrieve the result of the M3U8 job.
Query the job result. You can call the QueryTraceM3u8JobList operation to query the status and result of the M3U8 job. You can query by task ID. For more information about the operation, see Query the list of video tracing watermark M3U8 jobs.
If you specified a webhook address in the previous step, a request that contains the execution result is sent to the specified webhook address after the M3U8 job is complete. The execution result contains the watermark information.
Extract the tracing watermark from a video file
Submit a job to extract the tracing watermark.
For a video that is uploaded to OSS or a video URL from a third-party site, you can call the SubmitTraceExtractJob operation to submit a tracing watermark extraction job. For more information about the operation, see Extract a tracing watermark from a video.
Retrieve the job result.
You can call the QueryTraceExtractJob operation to retrieve the result of the tracing watermark extraction job. The result contains the watermark information. For more information about the operation, see Query a tracing watermark extraction job.
If you specified a webhook address in the previous step, a request that contains the execution result is sent to the specified webhook address after the extraction job is complete. The execution result contains the watermark information.