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Was talking to my partner about this and she had a pretty clever take: "Seems like a simple idea would simply be to change just the spelling of one seemingly i

Was talking to my partner about this and she had a pretty clever take: "Seems like a simple idea would simply be to change just the spelling of one seemingly insignificant name near the end of each version of the credits and then by actually watching the credits you'd know the leaker straight away." "Of course, you'd leave the watermark on there so the leaker doesn't know how you caught them and thinks that the watermark is still the tracking mechanism."

objclxt 12y ago
That's a mountweazel (better known as a fictitious entry) - reference books used to do it to trap people copying the text: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry
- ceejayoz 12y ago
  With it changing to detect which person leaked, it's more a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_trap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_trap
  - DanTheManPR 12y ago
    Hilariously, that wikipedia page uses an example from Game of Thrones. Tyrion tells different versions of a rumor to the various members of the king's council and successfully identifies who is an informant for Cersei.
- alexsop2 12y ago
  Or a trap street, used to detect copying of maps. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street
themoonbus 12y ago
Or, just add an insignificant name (changing someone's name might run you afoul of contracts, even in a review copy).
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  Add a series of random names in the middle of Special Thanks. The names are in a list stored somewhere, so are actually (large base) digits of a serial number.
  - CHY872 12y ago
    Trivially detectable. Find two screeners. Search for different frames. Oh look, the credits are different! Let's delete the credits to be safe! You want to make it so that the entire binary content of the film looks different for each person, so there can be no point of reference apart from what it looks like (which is the same).
    - themoonbus 12y ago
      Someone already brought this up, but the chance of a leaker getting hold of two screeners would be very low. But yes, once it was discovered that information was being embedded in the credits, those would be cut.
    - TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
      Oh of course. I don't doubt something more sophisticated would be used in practice.
- shiro 12y ago
  You're right about changing. Credit is very big deal for those who worked on it... But in this wide world there are fans who painstakingly go through the credit and put the text online. Sometimes even special thanks. So a fake name could be detected, and once the m.o. is detected, in this networked age, everyone would know it and people will start looking for it.
selectout 12y ago
Unsure how the credits work for Game of Thrones, but if it's like most shows where it's just the rolling black screen at the end of the show then most torrents cut that part off entirely by default.
- VeejayRampay 12y ago
  Still waiting for some clever chap to cut the opening out as well. The dream would be to have one version of the opening and a mencoder script to put the pieces back together. It would shave a few dozens megabytes on each file off.
  - cbhl 12y ago
    People have done this with Matroska playlists already for some series, although it's not always worth the amount of work that gets put into it. (For example, the opening might change from episode to episode so that spoiler characters aren't shown before they show up in the series.)
    - joshstrange 12y ago
      Or still shown after they are no longer on the show. I've considered cutting my videos to exclude the intro but it's not an exact science and sometimes the intro is different and I don't want to miss that. In the end most intros are not long enough to worry about cutting (though GoT is LONG). If it's long I can just FF through.
  - glomph 12y ago
    This is quite widely done for anime. The opening credits are actually different episode to episode for Game of Thrones both in people and the animation.
    - pbhjpbhj 12y ago
      You're right, they're not just different but relevant to the episode, they can foreshadow or highlight the importance of a particular region to the current episode, remind viewers of the geography, emphasise the different factions. Much more than a static credit - the music is also a fantastic mood setter in this case. The different places are shown with slightly different flourishes too, unless I'm mistaken, the style of the credits is really good. I think you can tell I'm a fan!
MichaelGG 12y ago
Or a real stenography technique that doesn't require them to actually re-render scenes.

objclxt 12y ago

That's a mountweazel (better known as a fictitious entry) - reference books used to do it to trap people copying the text: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry

ceejayoz 12y ago
With it changing to detect which person leaked, it's more a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_trap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_trap
- DanTheManPR 12y ago
  Hilariously, that wikipedia page uses an example from Game of Thrones. Tyrion tells different versions of a rumor to the various members of the king's council and successfully identifies who is an informant for Cersei.
alexsop2 12y ago
Or a trap street, used to detect copying of maps. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street

themoonbus 12y ago

Or, just add an insignificant name (changing someone's name might run you afoul of contracts, even in a review copy).

TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
Add a series of random names in the middle of Special Thanks. The names are in a list stored somewhere, so are actually (large base) digits of a serial number.
- CHY872 12y ago
  Trivially detectable. Find two screeners. Search for different frames. Oh look, the credits are different! Let's delete the credits to be safe! You want to make it so that the entire binary content of the film looks different for each person, so there can be no point of reference apart from what it looks like (which is the same).
  - themoonbus 12y ago
    Someone already brought this up, but the chance of a leaker getting hold of two screeners would be very low. But yes, once it was discovered that information was being embedded in the credits, those would be cut.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
    Oh of course. I don't doubt something more sophisticated would be used in practice.
shiro 12y ago
You're right about changing. Credit is very big deal for those who worked on it... But in this wide world there are fans who painstakingly go through the credit and put the text online. Sometimes even special thanks. So a fake name could be detected, and once the m.o. is detected, in this networked age, everyone would know it and people will start looking for it.

selectout 12y ago

Unsure how the credits work for Game of Thrones, but if it's like most shows where it's just the rolling black screen at the end of the show then most torrents cut that part off entirely by default.

VeejayRampay 12y ago
Still waiting for some clever chap to cut the opening out as well. The dream would be to have one version of the opening and a mencoder script to put the pieces back together. It would shave a few dozens megabytes on each file off.
- cbhl 12y ago
  People have done this with Matroska playlists already for some series, although it's not always worth the amount of work that gets put into it. (For example, the opening might change from episode to episode so that spoiler characters aren't shown before they show up in the series.)
  - joshstrange 12y ago
    Or still shown after they are no longer on the show. I've considered cutting my videos to exclude the intro but it's not an exact science and sometimes the intro is different and I don't want to miss that. In the end most intros are not long enough to worry about cutting (though GoT is LONG). If it's long I can just FF through.
- glomph 12y ago
  This is quite widely done for anime. The opening credits are actually different episode to episode for Game of Thrones both in people and the animation.
  - pbhjpbhj 12y ago
    You're right, they're not just different but relevant to the episode, they can foreshadow or highlight the importance of a particular region to the current episode, remind viewers of the geography, emphasise the different factions. Much more than a static credit - the music is also a fantastic mood setter in this case. The different places are shown with slightly different flourishes too, unless I'm mistaken, the style of the credits is really good. I think you can tell I'm a fan!

MichaelGG 12y ago

Or a real stenography technique that doesn't require them to actually re-render scenes.