Digital Watermarking Could Potentially Foil Pirates of Copyrighted Content

The technology is the brainchild of two companies. The first is Philips Digital Networks, an affiliate of Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics that provides digital television systems, including Internet TV and personal video recording solutions.

The other, Herndon, Virginia-based Cinea Inc. provides content protection and digital watermarking technologies and products to the motion picture and television industries.

Here's how the technology works: When someone orders content from a cable television company, for instance, a digital watermark identifying the subscriber, is placed on the file before it reaches the recipient.