Anyone Make an OBS Add-on to Add Identifier Code to a Broadcast?

[Smores]

Since the problems with some viewers illegally recording model video streams - and redistributing those without permission - is so bad, I had a slightly ingenious idea. Could someone develop an OBS add on that adds a small barcode or encrypted data onto an area of the screen that encodes a) the date/time b) the website name c) the name of the user handle that the model is currently chatting with. The information would be seen to the viewer as gibberish. Only the model would be able to decrypt the code using an encryption key she alone possesses.

To make this most useful, the model would need to remember to add the name of the user(s) she is in private/group chat with when that happens. Maybe the add-on could be designed to grab that automatically.

Now, once this infrastructure is in place, and your video gets out onto the Internet, you can access the recorded video, scan the barcode, and find out who is the user who recorded the stream. In a lot of cases, I am guessing that just confronting that user alone is going to result in the content getting taken down. At very least, you will know who is doing this and you can avoid that person going forward. If you have to prosecute them then you can reveal the information to whatever organization is helping you with that.

 

[DJ_Pioneer]

Why should only the model be able to decrypt it? If someone wants to infringe on a models copyright they have only themselves to blame if they are stupid enough to publish their own name while doing it. What I would do is us a QR code generator type in the information that you wanted, download an image of the QR code and add the image as a source in OBS and stick it in somewhere unobtrusive like in a corner of the stream.

 

[Smores]

Why should only the model be able to decrypt it? If someone wants to infringe on a models copyright they have only themselves to blame if they are stupid enough to publish their own name while doing it. What I would do is us a QR code generator type in the information that you wanted, download an image of the QR code and add the image as a source in OBS and stick it in somewhere unobtrusive like in a corner of the stream.

If you are a crook and you see your name on the video, it's more likely that you are going to develop a tool to render that region of the video unreadable. The analogy would be hidden video versus a large video camera on display. If the crook sees the camera, he avoids that area. You catch people committing crimes when they do not understand they are being watched and recorded. You could even develop this add on so that the barcode is invisible to the naked eye. A software tool is able to read it, but visually it cannot be seen.

 

[DJ_Pioneer]

If you are a crook and you see your name on the video, it's more likely that you are going to develop a tool to render that region of the video unreadable. The analogy would be hidden video versus a large video camera on display. If the crook sees the camera, he avoids that area. You catch people committing crimes when they do not understand they are being watched and recorded. You could even develop this add on so that the barcode is invisible to the naked eye. A software tool is able to read it, but visually it cannot be seen.

They are most likely going to crop out the area or just edit something over it not develop tools to make it unreadable. If it is not deterrence that are after and you want a super simple solution that is hard to edit out have a clock in the background that shows the time and a calendar that shows the date then just crosscheck against who did a private at that time and date. I think you are over engineering solutions to problems. Also I don't think it will be worth the models time to catch people who records privates and uploads them, most likely they will be using an assumed name like just like you are doing since I don't believe that Smores is your actual name. Even if they had the name of the fellow who did the recording to bring him to justice, the model would have to get a copyright attorney and pursue the matter legally and I don't think that would be worth it in most cases.

 

[Smores]

They are most likely going to crop out the area or just edit something over it not develop tools to make it unreadable. If it is not deterrence that are after and you want a super simple solution that is hard to edit out have a clock in the background that shows the time and a calendar that shows the date then just crosscheck against who did a private at that time and date. I think you are over engineering solutions to problems. Also I don't think it will be worth the models time to catch people who records privates and uploads them, most likely they will be using an assumed name like just like you are doing since I don't believe that Smores is your actual name. Even if they had the name of the fellow who did the recording to bring him to justice, the model would have to get a copyright attorney and pursue the matter legally and I don't think that would be worth it in most cases.

I think the problem is a big problem. That makes it worth engineering a solution.

I understand that people can crop out artifacts. That is why I then suggested making the artifact invisible and a digital-only signature.

The point is not to get the person's real name. Obviously you will not get that. The point is to find the online username of the person who is betraying you and uploading those videos. Particularly if the recordings are of a private chat, only a handful of users are doing that with most models, so finding who is the bad guy and cutting him off from making more recordings has value. Yes, a serial offender could create new a new username, but most of these guys are scummy opportunists, not stalkers. Most of them will not work that hard, and if you cut them off they will just spend time on easier targets. Yes, some of them are stalkers. The technology I described will not address that case.

 

[SMuser69]

If you are a crook and you see your name on the video, it's more likely that you are going to develop a tool to render that region of the video unreadable. The analogy would be hidden video versus a large video camera on display. If the crook sees the camera, he avoids that area. You catch people committing crimes when they do not understand they are being watched and recorded. You could even develop this add on so that the barcode is invisible to the naked eye. A software tool is able to read it, but visually it cannot be seen.

The problem is OBS doesn't work like that. The only thing OBS is communicating with is the streaming server for the camsite and this is most likely not bidirectional communications for sake of cost. For your plan to be possible OBS would have to be able to rewrite it's overlays AFTER it already sent them to the stream server which involves time travel.

The only thing you could do is make some OBS app that logs the timestamp to the chat member list at the time but even then most the recorders aren't in the room they are capturing the feed itself so that wouldn't work easier or in worse case an already paranoid models to hand out pointless bans to a room of innocent members.

 

[DJ_Pioneer]

I think the problem is a big problem. That makes it worth engineering a solution.

I understand that people can crop out artifacts. That is why I then suggested making the artifact invisible and a digital-only signature.

The point is not to get the person's real name. Obviously you will not get that. The point is to find the online username of the person who is betraying you and uploading those videos. Particularly if the recordings are of a private chat, only a handful of users are doing that with most models, so finding who is the bad guy and cutting him off from making more recordings has value. Yes, a serial offender could create new a new username, but most of these guys are scummy opportunists, not stalkers. Most of them will not work that hard, and if you cut them off they will just spend time on easier targets. Yes, some of them are stalkers. The technology I described will not address that case.

I don't think you read my simple solution so I made it easier to read.

1. Put clock and a calendar in the background.
2. Check video and cross reference against who did a private at that time and date.
3. ?
4. Profit!!!

People recording public sessions can not be caught anyway.

 

[Smores]

The problem is OBS doesn't work like that. The only thing OBS is communicating with is the streaming server for the camsite and this is most likely not bidirectional communications for sake of cost. For your plan to be possible OBS would have to be able to rewrite it's overlays AFTER it already sent them to the stream server which involves time travel.

The only thing you could do is make some OBS app that logs the timestamp to the chat member list at the time but even then most the recorders aren't in the room they are capturing the feed itself so that wouldn't work easier or in worse case an already paranoid models to hand out pointless bans to a room of innocent members.

All of these video producer tools like XSplit and OBS let you run applications locally on our computer and then place the output of that software somewhere on the video output as an overlay. What that software does should be out of scope to how OBS uploads the video. But as a worst case, the OBS add-on would let the model enter in text manually, which is encoded. That text can be whatever the model wants, and I suggested some information as an example. That doesn't involve time travel or bidirectional communication.

 

[Smores]

I don't think you read my simple solution so I made it easier to read.

1. Put clock and a calendar in the background.
2. Check video and cross reference against who did a private at that time and date.
3. ?
4. Profit!!!

People recording public sessions can not be caught anyway.

If you mean a physical clock, a model working in a studio does not have that option most of the time. Rooms change frequently.

Yes, you can keep laborious manual records and cross reference them. It's not less difficult. It's just less automatic.

Of course people can record public sessions, but some models take care to limit their exposures in public chat. Those who do not would probably get little benefit from either one of our solutions.

 

[DJ_Pioneer]

If you mean a physical clock, a model working in a studio does not have that option most of the time. Rooms change frequently.

Yes, you can keep laborious manual records and cross reference them. It's not less difficult. It's just less automatic.

Of course people can record public sessions, but some models take care to limit their exposures in public chat. Those who do not would probably get little benefit from either one of our solutions.

If the model works for a studio isn't this the studios responsibility? Also you don't have to keep records I believe there is some sort of log, at least with MFC, where the model can see who they did a private with, otherwise making a quick note in notepad shouldn't be that hard.

 

[Smores]

If the model works for a studio isn't this the studios responsibility? Also you don't have to keep records I believe there is some sort of log, at least with MFC, where the model can see who they did a private with, otherwise making a quick note in notepad shouldn't be that hard.

First, the average studio model I have seen on CB - outside of Romania anyway - gets taken off the street, thrown in front of a camera, then told "good luck". The level of support is a few notches above zero.

Second, if the problem is the studio's problem, it's still a problem. And therefore my problem solution is addressed to the studio, not the model. How does it change my post?

MFC has a great log of a lot of different activity, and kudos to MFC for doing that. As a viewer I highly value that the one time every three months I need it. CB has much of the same information logged, but it is hidden from users and available only to their support people.

I am not invalidating a manual solution. If that is your bliss, then go for it.

 

[DJ_Pioneer]

First, the average studio model I have seen on CB - outside of Romania anyway - gets taken off the street, thrown in front of a camera, then told "good luck". The level of support is a few notches above zero.

Second, if the problem is the studio's problem, it's still a problem. And therefore my problem solution is addressed to the studio, not the model. How does it change my post?

MFC has a great log of a lot of different activity, and kudos to MFC for doing that. As a viewer I highly value that the one time every three months I need it. CB has much of the same information logged, but it is hidden from users and available only to their support people.

I am not invalidating a manual solution. If that is your bliss, then go for it.

If the studios level of support is zero why would they implement your solutions?

 

[Smores]

If the studios level of support is zero why would they implement your solutions?

Many of these studios let the model run their own show. If she runs OBS she can add the plugin. If they want to authorize the software that runs under OBS, she can ask them to do that.

There is a way to make this work, no matter who owns the problem. There are also ways to make this fail, no matter who owns the problem. Pretty much like everything else in life.

 

[DJ_Pioneer]

Many of these studios let the model run their own show. If she runs OBS she can add the plugin. If they want to authorize the software that runs under OBS, she can ask them to do that.

There is a way to make this work, no matter who owns the problem. There are also ways to make this fail, no matter who owns the problem. Pretty much like everything else in life.

OK, here is what you do then. Hire a programmer to code the plugin that you want, some software to generate your encrypted undetectable barcode and some sort of database software that you will need as well. This is actual work so I doubt you will find someone who will do it for free.

 

[SaffronBurke]

Or - and here's a radical ass concept, brace yourself - instead of worrying about busting whoever capped the show, the model can just watermark her feed with her model name/links, and get a bit of paying traffic from the caps.

 

[QuinnLane]

Or - and here's a radical ass concept, brace yourself - instead of worrying about busting whoever capped the show, the model can just watermark her feed with her model name/links, and get a bit of paying traffic from the caps.

Right?? It's that easy. As soon as I realized that I can add watermarks etc with OBS I rubbed my hands together so damn hard.

If models don't know how- download GIMP if you can't afford Photoshop, delete the background so it's transparent, pick a font, add the text, save as a .png, bam. Mine looks like this, and I have an inverted/white text version for when the black text may not stand out well. My site link is at the bottom and my Twitter url is at the top.

 

[Fatquack]

This kind of watermarking technology exists already for many years and is used by some porn sites, but it has not made any difference in the level of piracy.

 

[AmberCutie]

This kind of watermarking technology exists already for many years and is used by some porn sites, but it has not made any difference in the level of piracy.

Just to clarify, are you replying to the OP of this topic, or the models who use their watermark as advertising on their feed?

 

[SMuser69]

I remember developing an encoding method that synced with a twitch site app. It basically worked like the old scrambled cable method. The raw stream was implanted with an overlay that scrambled and oscillated the video at a random frequency with a sync code. When the sync code was put into the twitch side it would realign the video to near perfect quality(though it did use more CPU on the views side). I got it basically working but then forgot about it. Maybe it's worth pulling it out and seeing if I can turn the client side to a chrome ad in. This way when the model is doing stuff in free chat she can 'scramble' the cable and give codes to the tippers. I actually planned to use it to allow twitch content that would nobody be reportable to be concealable at the streamers will or letting a twitch streamer to offer a 'rated M' package (I actually called it Rated M I thought it was a cool name).

 

[Fatquack]

Just to clarify, are you replying to the OP of this topic, or the models who use their watermark as advertising on their feed?

To the OP. Watermarking software that embeds unique ID's.

 

[Lintilla]

Reminds me of this thread where I yelled a lot and OP got banhammered
https://www.ambercutie.com/forums/threads/the-technology-that-will-stop-piracy.23989/

The main issue is... you figured out the username of the person who recorded you. Good job. What do you do with that information to stop them? Maybe you can get them banned, probably not even. Yes, they'll make a new account with another prepaid or even stolen card. You say:

Yes, a serial offender could create new a new username, but most of these guys are scummy opportunists, not stalkers. Most of them will not work that hard, and if you cut them off they will just spend time on easier targets. Yes, some of them are stalkers. The technology I described will not address that case.

but in my experience most ARE scummy serial offenders. Granted, I don't work on CB anymore. But it's the same guys uploading things from C4S, it's the same guys joining monthly subscriptions and ripping every video, it's the same guys recording gold shows on SM, it's absolutely the same guys recording public shows on MFC and CB where this idea won't work at all unless the site itself gave a different feed to every user (and even then, hardly helpful, since you don't actually have to be logged in...) In the rare case where it's a one on one show of mine that gets recorded... Personally I wouldn't need anything like a watermark or even a timestamp to remember it (though I do make actual written notes about most of my shows!) Its also much less common than public shows or clips getting spread, so... I hardly care to begin with.

As for:

In a lot of cases, I am guessing that just confronting that user alone is going to result in the content getting taken down.

Yeah, I'm personally guessing not.

Any case, this has still barely worked even for things like Oscar screeners, so good luck with that.

 

[Smores]

Reminds me of this thread where I yelled a lot and OP got banhammered
https://www.ambercutie.com/forums/threads/the-technology-that-will-stop-piracy.23989/

Well that person was obviously selling a product and also was not good at listening to valid objections. I am not so vested in any one solution.

The main issue is... you figured out the username of the person who recorded you. Good job. What do you do with that information to stop them? Maybe you can get them banned, probably not even. Yes, they'll make a new account with another prepaid or even stolen card. You say:

but in my experience most ARE scummy serial offenders. Granted, I don't work on CB anymore. But it's the same guys uploading things from C4S, it's the same guys joining monthly subscriptions and ripping every video, it's the same guys recording gold shows on SM, it's absolutely the same guys recording public shows on MFC and CB where this idea won't work at all unless the site itself gave a different feed to every user (and even then, hardly helpful, since you don't actually have to be logged in...) In the rare case where it's a one on one show of mine that gets recorded... Personally I wouldn't need anything like a watermark or even a timestamp to remember it (though I do make actual written notes about most of my shows!) Its also much less common than public shows or clips getting spread, so... I hardly care to begin with.

I agree no one is going to stop the recording of public shows.

For one-on-one private shows, I believe people might remember shows they did in the last few weeks, but if you discover content that is months old tracing back to your notes is going to be a tough exercise for some people.

In the end, your point seems to be that the offender will just fold his operation when caught and immediately open up shop using new account and new stolen credit card. That's a valid point. Could sites like MFC/CB partly address this by giving models the option to deny privates or groups automatically to any user whose account is less than 120 days old and who has not purchased tokens by a certified payment method like a wire transfer? Then at that point some kind of fingerprinting technology lets you stop doing business with the offender, and the 120-day rule then stops the new account creation from getting around the block. Since the account is using a stolen card, it probably is not going to survive 120 days to reach a point where it can then qualify for new privates.

 

[Lintilla]

Could sites like MFC/CB partly address this by giving models the option to deny privates or groups automatically to any user whose account is less than 120 days old and who has not purchased tokens by a certified payment method like a wire transfer?

I suppose they could, but for a problem that I don't hear models complaining about very frequently at all, I doubt it's in anyone's interest to build in a function that cripples the site for new members. Especially when so much of the whole economy of camsites depends on signing up new users and on guys with boners making impulsive decisions.