Protect Software

Protect Software is a globally operating, Germany based company that develops and markets licensing, access control and secure distribution technologies for creative works. This includes digital media (video, music) and computer software (consumer software, enterprise software and video games). Customers include major movie studios, PC video game publishers and independent software vendors.

History

The first product was a CD-ROM copy protection system for software developed by ACE GmbH in 1996, in Dortmund, Germany. Protect Software was spun off in 2004 to focus on the copy protection business while the main company focused on media transcoding solutions.

Products

ProtectDISC

The ProtectDISC family of software is designed to be used on mass replicated CD and DVD media. Their principal use is to prevent, reduce and delay working copies of CD and DVD content or allow explicit copying under a defined license.

ProtectDISC Software is a copy protection and digital rights management solution for Microsoft Windows applications and video games on mass replicated CDs and DVDs, designed to prevent the copying of discs for casual or commercial use. Early versions were only capable of protecting CDs, but support for protecting DVDs and online unlocking was added in later versions. The system adds a unique digital signature to the CD or DVD at the time of replication, which cannot be transferred from the original media to a copy. Each time a protected program runs, the program performs various security checks and verifies the signature on the media, and once verification has been established, the program will start normally.

ProtectDISC Video is a copy protection system for mass replicated Video-DVDs, which stops copy and ripping software from analyzing the structure of the DVD, and therefore preventing copying. Early versions were only capable of protecting DVDs without DVD-ROM content and no CSS, but later versions added support for CSS, DVD-ROM content and LiveDigitalCopy. Although the company does not give out any data on usage, the system seems to be most often used for European DVD Releases and North American Releases from Universal Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

SecureBurn is a software development kit used for anti ripping copy protection of recordable DVD media. It is intended for video download-to-burn solutions, and is also used to protect small editions of burned DVDs such as DVD screeners. No authoring changes need to be done in order to add SecureBurn to a Video-DVD, and the protection can be added on the fly during burning. The system can be combined with other copy protections such as recordable CSS, however SecureBurn is not an open standard and although currently no known compatibility problems exist, the company does not guarantee that all future DVD players will be compatible with the copy protection.

LiveDigitalCopy is a technology for performing a Digital Copy of a DVD by dynamically transcoding the content without requiring pre-encoded files. DVD require a special preparation step after the authoring step to add the DVD-ROM section and modify the DVD structures in a way that transcoding the content does not violate the DMCA by circumventing the CSS or other copy protection. This preparation is typically performed by the manufacturer prior to the glass mastering step.

ProtectBURN

The ProtectBURN family of software is designed to be used on recordable CD and DVD media to prevent, reduce and delay working copies. A different solution also enables the writing of CSS protected DVDs with special media and special DVD burners based on the CSS Managed Recording specification.

ProtectBURN Video is a structural copy protection system for recordable Video-DVDs, which stops copy and ripping software from analyzing the structure of the DVD, and therefore preventing copying. The protection process can be performed by the publisher or the replicator by using computer software supplied by Protect Software, and DVD authoring changes are not required. The system is used by some movie studios, and duplication services to create low quantities of copy protected discs. One example is the protection of screeners for the Academy Awards.

Online Distribution

The company offers different online distribution solutions that range from a complete customizable web store incl. payment gateway for integration on existing websites to simple software unlocking functionality that can be integrated from software partners for interaction with existing web stores. It also offers special distribution solutions for software previews and Film screening that utilize Digital watermarking technology to track content.

Rights Management

The company offers DRM solutions for video files and computer software, which enables movie and software publishers to license their movies and software for different use cases such as rental or video on demand.

References

"Protect Software Unveils New Managed Copy Solution For DVDs". CDRLabs.com. 2009-01-30. Retrieved 2009-03-11.

External links

Company website