The Founder of Copy Protection
ArtistScope is the innovator and leading developer of access rights and
copy protection solutions since 1998.
ArtistScope provides software for securing
all types of media with the option of total
control over who can view it and how.
Depending on whether you want to protect web
pages or documents and the extent of your
reader's access entitlements, you have a
choice of several solutions.
ArtistScope software is innovative and the
industry standard for copy protection,
providing the most secure and most robust
copy protection options possible. It is the
solution of choice by the military,
government, telecoms and many other
industries worldwide where the protection of
intellectual property and sensitive
information is critical.
History in the Making
The origin of ArtistScope can also be said
to be the origin of copy protection for the
Internet, because before ArtistScope,
copy
protection for images or web pages did not
exist.
When representing artists who were
interested in exhibiting online, many were
concerned about the lack of protection for their intellectual property. Extensive research including reaching out to experts such as the Mozilla Foundation and others, found no feasible solutions for the copy protection of web content. All that could be found that was a
university paper speculating about the possibility of vetting links to images using a server side script. But no such script had actually been created.
So the task of finding a solution to
prevent image copy was put to programmers of worldwide, but most concluded that such
a thing was impossible. Yet we continued to look for a solution. Our first method hid an image from mouse saves by displaying it as a table background instead of as a clickable image source. Then we developed a method of superimposing a layer over the image to prevent mouse saves but layers were not yet supported in all browsers. In fact compared to today, browser technology was still very young and it was before the plethora of software that is now available to scrape web sites and capture all types of web media.
Our first two solutions were for image encryption and link protection. Secure Image was released as the first
solution for copy protecting images on web
pages. Written in Java, Secure Image displayed encrypted images that were not viewable outside of its embedded viewer or away from the owner's website as images were Domain Locked by using the domain as the decryption key. Link Protect was released as the first solution for the prevention of unauthorized linking and bandwidth theft.
But anything that is as offered as security soon becomes a target for attack. In those days less than 2% of
Internet users knew what the PrintScreen button was used for. In fact very few graphic artists knew about the PrintScreen
button (Mac didn't have one) and screen capture software did not exist yet.
Copy Protection
In 1999 ArtistScope released CopySafe which prevented PrintScreen and screen capture at system level by controlling the clipboard. The radical changes introduced with each new version of Windows and the development of screen capture and recording software has meant that our solutions had to continue evolving to provide adequate copy protection from all avenues of exploit. Today they remain second to none.
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
ArtistScope revolutionized Digital Rights Management (DRM) by introducing call-to-home server validation instead of using tokens, ensuring that DRM rights could not be exploited and giving authors total control over any changes with immediate effect. Of course our competitors claimed that was impossible which was of no surprise considering that it always takes a couple of years before they can imitate anything. Take for example the means of user identification... if indeed there was user validation beyond password control, the industry standard was identification by MAC address which varies with Internet connection type. But what if the user is offline? For a constant ID ArtistScope DRM instead uses an algorithm based on computer serial number and manufacturer that is unique to each computer and device.
Secure Web Browser
Since the beginning, copy protection for online content has been applied from the web browser, the tool that everyone uses to view media online. But catering for each web browser's quirks and the fact that they were always designed at cross purpose, ie: to copy and save all media, the environment provided by modern web browsers has never been ideal. But in 2015 when most browsers dropped support for plugins that could action at system level, the argument for allowing users to use their default browser to view copy protected content became ridiculous.
ArtistScope released its first secure web browser in 2011 and was well prepared for that sad turn of events. In fact by requiring that site visitors use the ArtisBrowser as the only means of accessing copy protected web content, that content is now asssured of remaining protected from all avenues of exploit. In fact it can now be more secure than ever imagined because by using the ArtistScope Site Protection System (ASPS) and the ArtisBrowser, web pages are now more secure from everything, inluding packet sniffers.
Solutions For All Media
Today ArtistScope provides secure copy protection solutions for all media, from enterprise solutions running on dedicated servers to protection services that can be used by every website, even those on shared hosting plans.
Competitors
ArtistScope has seen many new startups over the years, but they do not last because the Internet is ever changing. Plagiarism and false adverting is rife, even in an industry supposed to protect intellectiual property. Origins are the most common lie... our oldest surving competitor did not exist before 2004.
"We know the technology, we know the
customer, and we know the audience. Our
systems are the most secure and are
affordable; and we stay apace with those who
seek ways to get around protection
solutions."
Contact
Email has always been best because nothing can be shown by phone and messages can be re-read or translated for a better understanding.
