New technology from Philips aims to thwart video pirates

You might want to think twice about pulling TV shows off of your DVR and distributing them in the future. But I don't have to tell you guys that. I know all Slashgear readers are good, honest citizens.

Philips is working on a new technology that will place a unique watermark all video broadcasts that can be traced back to the set-top box that the signal came from. They claim that there is no way to separate, remove, or alter the watermark so that it can no longer be traced.

They claim that this is a good move for consumers because it will allow providers to "confidently broadcast more high definition and early release material that is typically at higher risk for piracy." As long as the watermark isn't visible to the naked eye, I don't really think this will be any problem for the average user. Just don't go sharing the contents of your DVR with everyone.

Philips watermark tech traces pirated TV content [via tgdaily]