The Walking Dead: AMC takes steps to stop piracy

AMC has a major problem when it comes to piracy of its hit zombie survival drama The Walking Dead, and has taken steps to limit the damage from pirates.

The Walking Dead is the second most pirated program in the world today. Behind only HBO’s Game of Thrones, fans flock to the internet to find leaks, spoilers and copies of advance viewing episodes of the hit zombie survival drama.

This situation has finally been addressed by AMC, as it was recently announced that advance viewing copies of the show will now have digital watermarks included in each video in order to track the origin of leaked episodes. According to ComicBook.com, Civolution’s NexGuard will be adding the watermarks at the production and distribution level.

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Adding these digital watermarks won’t eliminate piracy. However, it will make it easier to track down the origins of the leak and make changes in their distribution to stop the source of the pirated episodes from continuing to do so.

AMC’s chief technology officer Steve Pontillo released a prepared statement describing the goal of the new security measure. Here is part of that statement:

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"“It is paramount for us to protect our assets when they are at their most valuable. This enhanced content security is a powerful deterrent against piracy and protects our revenue and that of our distribution partners.”"

Sadly, the digital watermark won’t be able to stop piracy of The Walking Dead after the episode has aired. Once that happens, there are a multitude of ways for individuals to upload the content for people to stream or download, but cutting down on the pre-airing piracy should be a major step in keeping the content of upcoming episodes more of a secret.

AMC might not be able to stop folks for watching unauthorized versions of their flagship program, but taking this step toward insuring their product’s security should help them track down the individuals distributing their copyrighted material without permission.

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The Walking Dead will return on Sunday, February 28, 2016 for the eleventh episode of season 6, titled “Knots Untie” airing on AMC at 9 pm/8c. With the series growing and expanding, there is no better time to be a fan of the hit zombie series.