International Journal of Modern Developments in Engineering and Science 1

Volume 1, Issue 5, May 2022

https://www.ijmdes.com | ISSN (Online): 2583-3138

Design and Implementation of an Automated

Anti-Piracy System
G. N. Devraj1, S. G. Mangala Gowri2, D. Bharath Raj3*
1,3
Student, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Atria Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India
2
Associate Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Atria Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India

Abstract: Cinema is a major entertainment for people in today’s the studios and even contribute to their current downfall. In
life. To entertain people a lot of investment is put on cinemas by 2010, for example, over one million copies of James Cameron
the film makers. Their effort is being ruined by few people by
Avatar were downloaded illegally in just seven days. In the
pirating the cinema content. They do it by capturing the video in
mobile camera and upload it to websites or sell it to people and this view of the law, movie piracy is considered as crime all over
goes on. In this project, a technical method to prevent video the world. As an important source of movie piracy, the
recording in movie theatres is presented. An invisible light is camcorder piracy accounts for about 23% of the piracy methods
projected from the screen to the whole audience that falls on the according to the BBC News. As the source of infringing DVDs,
cameras which are optically sensitive to infra-red light in turn camcorder movies spread rapidly on the internet. These losses
disturbing the acquisition functions of any camera making an
in revenue will obviously cause serious financial problems for
illegal recording in the theatre useless.
the studios and even contribute to their current downfall. In
Keywords: Anti-piracy, authentication. 2010, for example, over one million copies of James Cameron
Avatar were downloaded illegally in just seven days. In the
1. Introduction view of the law, movie piracy is considered as crime all over
In today’s age the growth of the Internet has led to many new the world.
innovations in the way it is used. Internet can provide fast
access to any kind of information and media, and also the 2. Proposed Methodology
copyrighted contents. “Piracy refers to the unauthorized
duplication of copyrighted content that is then sold at
substantially lower prices in the 'grey' market”. Final copy of
the movie content might get leaked before its release by the
multiple teams working on them. The more common method is
to film the movie inside a theatre and then uploading it on
Websites or convert them to DVDs and sell them on the streets.
Most box office releases are available online within a few days
or even hours of the box office release. Hindering piracy has
always been priority number one for movie theatres. The
markets around the world have tried to take on the issue of Fig. 1. Block diagram
piracy through policing and prosecution. Copyright law
protects the value of creative work. Making unauthorized This system employs two levels of authentication. Firstly, the
copies may subject one to civil and criminal liability. Night smart card that is possessed by the respective theatre officer
vision goggles are provided to movie hall staffs which would consists of information which is checked with preloaded
help them to notice any audience trying to record a movie while reference information stored in the comparator. The digital
screening. Instead of treating every movie goer as a potential output of the comparator is passed on to the optocoupler where
pirate, an anti-piracy screening system can be implemented in it provides an electrical isolation between the comparator and
order to make the pirate copy useless as well as having no effect driver thereby preventing the flow of back enfant the
on the audience. Movie piracy has a profound impact on the comparator. The signal forms the comparator is passed to driver
motion picture industry. The Motion Picture Association of consisting of pairs of Darlington transistor where it undergoes
America (MPAA) investigated on the movie piracy in 2005. amplification and inversion.
According to the statistics in the report, the major U.S. motion The second level authentication is done by the micro
picture studios lost 6:1 billion or more annually. These losses controller. On switching the Micro controller, the keypad gets
in revenue will obviously cause serious financial problems for activated for the password to be entered. If the password is

*Corresponding author: [email protected]

G. N. Devraj et al. International Journal of Modern Developments in Engineering and Science, VOL. 1, NO. 5, MAY 2022 2

verified the controller output is given to the driver through the

buffer which provides impedance matching between them.
Since the output from the microcontroller is low, driver
amplifies the signal and actuates the relays to control the IR
LEDs. The signals that are transmitted by IR LEDs placed
behind and also along the perimeter of the screen are emitted
towards the audience. So, this invisible light disturbs the
acquisition functions of the camera. On placing IR LEDs
behind and around the screen in the cinema theatre, the video
playing on the screen becomes blur or scrambled for audience
watching the movie because wavelength of IR (700nm-lmm)
signal is longer than the visible light wavelength (400nm-
700nm). Therefore, the audience will be able to watch the
movie without any disturbance but since the camcorders are Fig. 4. Hardware setup
sensitive to IR light the recorded content becomes blurring or
unfit to watch. On switching on the microcontroller, the system waits for the
respective person’s input to handle the system and hence
displays the project name initially as shown in fig. 5 and the
ready status of the system as shown in fig. 6.

Fig. 2. Normal picture Fig. 5. Display of the project title

Fig. 6. Ready status of the system

Once the microcontroller switches on, the RFID gets

activated for the RFID card. If the password is verified
Fig. 3. Picture after placing IR’s behind the screen
controller output is given to the driver through the buffer which
provides impedance matching between them. If the password
3. Implementation
entered by the user matches with the data hidden in the video
The hardware setup of the block diagram of the movie piracy file, data is retrieved successfully as shown in fig. 7.
system as shown in fig. 1 is shown in fig. 4.
The system uses:
• Arduino UNO microcontroller
• Power supply
• LCD display
• Node MCU
• RFID
• Relay
• IR LEDs.
Fig. 7. Password authentication
G. N. Devraj et al. International Journal of Modern Developments in Engineering and Science, VOL. 1, NO. 5, MAY 2022 3

If the password entered by the user matches with the data scrambled. it appears so because wavelength of IR (700nm-
hidden in the video file, data is retrieved successfully as shown 1mm) signal is longer than the visible light wavelength (400nm-
in fig. 7. 700nm). Therefore, the audience will be able to watch the
After authentication of the password, the LCD display movie without any disturbance but since the camcorders are
displays that the authorized person played the movie as shown sensitive to IR light the recorded content becomes blur or unfit
in fig. 8. to watch.
If a wrong entry of password is done password authentication
fails as there is a mismatch of the password entered by the user
as shown in fig. 11.

Fig. 8. Displaying authorized person

Since the authentication process becomes successful, movie

gets displayed on the screen, also displaying the location at
which movie is being played as shown in fig. 9.
Fig. 11. Failure of password authentication process

Simultaneously the LCD displays that an unauthorized

person tried to play the movie as shown in fig. 12.

Fig. 9. Movie being displayed

Since the output of the microcontroller is low, driver

amplifies the signal and actuates the relay to control the IR Fig. 12. Display showing about an unauthorized person tries to play the
movie
LEDs. The LEDs turn on once when the password
authentication process becomes successful as shown in fig. 9. The failure of password authentication does not allow the
The signals that are transmitted by IR LEDs placed behind and movie to be played and also an alert message is delivered to the
also along the perimeter of the screen are emitted towards the
concerned person with the information regarding the location
audience. So, this invisible light disturbs the acquisition where the movie is being played in an unauthorized way.
functions of the camera.
A dialog box appears to indicate the same as shown in fig. 13
and the message being sent to the concerned person is shown in
fig. 14.

Fig. 10. IR LEDs being turned on Fig. 13. Movie unable to be played

On placing IR LEDs behind and around the screen in the

cinema theatre, the video playing on the screen becomes blur or
G. N. Devraj et al. International Journal of Modern Developments in Engineering and Science, VOL. 1, NO. 5, MAY 2022 4

the movie. However, they cause disturbance to the movie that

is being captured by the cameras. This makes the captured
content unfit to be uploaded to the websites. On the other hand,
if any other person other than the theatre owner, or any person
who doesn’t have the information of the password tries to make
a password entry, the system considers them as an unauthorized
person. Hence does not allow the movie to be played in the
theatre. An alert message is sent to the concerned person or to
the theatre owner displaying that an unauthorized person tried
to play the movie along with the place where it was tried to be
Fig. 14. Message being sent to the concerned person played.

4. Conclusion and Future Scope References

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