DAZN: to track down pirates, the platform uses a method that annoys subscribers

If you follow football news and its broadcast in France, you probably already know that football fans have been grumbling for several weeks. In particular, the prices charged by the Ligue 1 broadcaster, the streaming platform DAZN, are considered too high.

The result is a massive increase in piracywhich society is trying to fight against. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of one of the techniques that appears to have been deployed against pirates remains to be proven, while subscribers are indeed affected.

A method as old as time (computer science)

This technique is well known to watermark. To identify the source of a pirate stream broadcast on Telegram, IPTV or elsewhere, DAZN seems to be using it in any case, according to several testimonies on social networks. Thus, by simply affixing a unique code to each subscriber in a random place on the screen, DAZN can identify a person who is illegally broadcasting a match, then, ultimately, cut their subscription.

A fairly crude stripping technique which will certainly not please subscribers, who are already complaining about the price and sometimes the image quality of DAZN. Furthermore, despite this technique having already been used for several weeks, the hacking is still there.

Piracy still has a bright future ahead of it

As our colleagues from Numerama explain, DAZN faces several obstacles. First of all, the law prohibits cutting the subscription of a paying subscriber, even if caught red-handed in piracy. This system of watermark serves as evidence to begin legal proceedings to cut the subscription, which will take time. A hacker can then easily change accounts and start again at will.

Additionally, some hackers can grab the DAZN feed without it. watermarkor even hide it by using a delay between the official live broadcast and theirs. In short, we will have to find better to prevent piracy, or a real questioning on the part of DAZN on its offer.