Thursday 18 November 2010

TV EVERYWHERE INVESTS IN ANTI-PIRACY COMPANY KLIPCORP

TV Everywhere has announced an investment in KLipcorp IP Ltd, a company specialising in IP protection in the digital age.

KLipcorp assist clients such as leading sports governing bodies, cinema and TV rights owners in monitoring and policing digital piracy. The company has already worked for the Football Association, IMG and the PGA.

A combination of technical and legal techniques are used to track and remove content from illegal online distribution.

KLipcorp will join rights management software company Rights Tracker in the TVE portfolio.

"We see tremendous synergies between Klipcorp and some of the other companies in our portfolio," comments TVE CEO Iolo Jones. "In particular, Rights Tracker and KLipcorp can offer an end-to-end rights management solution to rights holders that will help them identify, exploit, protect and maximize revenue from their properties."

KLipcorp was founded by Peter Lewinton who has worked on digital rights issues with the FA Premier League, ESPN, NBA, TWI, BBC Worldwide, Eurosport, Augusta National, Fox Sports, Football League, Football Conference and PGA European Tour. He started his career at IMG after graduating in Law from Oxford University.

“IP Piracy is a major challenge for all rights owners and distributors and we help to address that problem. I am very pleased to welcome TVE as an investor.” Peter Lewinton.


About KLipcorp

KLipcorp assist clients in protecting the value of their intellectual property in an age where digital piracy is widespread and largely unchecked, causing significant damage to the revenues of media companies across all formats but in particular cinema, television, print and music.

KLipcorp are specialists in combating online piracy through a deep understanding of the distribution of content online and the legal issues surrounding copyright and trademark law in the digital space, using a combination of technical processes and calling on the skills of leading legal practitioners. The service:

  • Identifies infringement of intellectual property rights;
  • Investigates sources of infringement, identifying the pirates for the purposes of preventative action;
  • Utilises legal and technological resources to terminate ongoing infringement;
  • Offers bespoke consultations on how to prevent infringement of IP rights;
  • Secures compensation from pirates and infringing IP networks, sharing the proceeds with the rights holders thus allowing rights holders to view anti-piracy activities as a revenue rather than a cost centre.

The company’s services come in four stages:

1. Pre-notification of rights ownership to potential illegal distributors

2. Monitoring and takedown

Sites that link to streaming content (but do not host anything)

- Name of the site

- Screenshot of the site

- URL

- Contact information of the site (e-mail address, etc)

- Action taken (f.e. e-mail send, contact form used, etc)

- Response (yes / now)

- Response time

Sites that host the content

- Name of the site

- Screenshot of the site

- URL

- Contact information of the site (e-mail address, etc)

- Action taken (f.e. e-mail send, contact form used, etc)

- Response (yes / no)

- Response time

P2P linking sites

- Name of the site

- Screenshot of the site

- URL

- Contact information of the site (e-mail address, etc)

- Action taken (f.e. e-mail send, contact form used, etc)

- Response (yes / no)

- Response time

P2P data gathering

- Name of the site

- URL (where stream was found)

- Stream working (online yes / no)

- Number of IP Addresses

In a separate excel table, IP Tracking data as follows:

- IP Addresses

- ISP Name,

- Timestamp,

- infringing site where the P2P stream was found

Video recording of illegal streams

3. Stage 1 legal action

Distribution of infringement letters to:

· Hosting sites

· ISPs

· Individual Infringers

4. Further activity

Management of full blown litigation – retention of correct experts

Appointment of investigators if required

Thursday 23 September 2010

TV EVERYWHERE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD

These are exciting times at TV Everywhere with lots of new, interesting projects coming in to our companies. None more so than VidZapper, which is working with some of Hollywood's leading lights and the world's largest brands on an exciting new initiative, Control TV.

You can read more about it here.

Perhaps most significant is that senior Hollywood figures such as Richard Saperstein (who has run production at studios such as New Line, Artisan and Dimension Films, and been involved in bringing movies such as Seven, Magnolia, Boogie Nights, The Mask, RushHour, Dumb And Dumber, Hancock and Mother's Day to our screens), is now getting involved in the IP delivery of content.

The backing of major brands, including Ford and Sprint, also demonstrates how internet delivery of television is fast evolving into a valuable mainstream medium in its own right.

It might have taken a decade, but we've finally made it to Hollywood.

Wednesday 9 June 2010

TV EVERYWHERE UPS INVESTMENT IN RIGHTS TRACKER

TV Everywhere has announced that it has increased its investment in Rights Tracker, the rights management software company,

As part of a new fundraising round, also followed by existing venture capital investors, YFM and Creative Capital Fund, as well as a number of angel investors, TVE has increased its interest in the company that provides the software platform to a number of the UK's largest distribution and production companies, including RDF, All3Media and Shed.

Rights Tracker helps companies streamline their sales process, in many instances providing integration with financial functions within production and distribution companies, and also helps increase sales by identifying unexploited availabilities.

The companies' systems support licensing and formats, as well as programme and clip sales.

"I've Chaired Rights Tracker for over a year now and their technology is becoming more and more relevant in a world where rights are often an afterthought - an expensive afterthought," comments TVE CEO Iolo Jones. "We now see the company extend from a stand alone rights management product to being the hub enabling real time programme acquisition."

Rights Tracker is in the process of integrating its technology with VidZapper, the enterprise video management platform also owned by TVE.