From this week forward, the EU is imposing a new set of requirements on disclosure of media origins. Specifically, all new AI systems and generative tools need to comply with the EU AI Act’s Article 50 transparency requirements. This particular EU article mandates that EU media companies must disclose and label all segments of AI-generated content–images, text, audio, and video–at the time that the content is created and distributed. C2PA offers an interoperable standard, already in place, that can meet the demands of these new regulations.
Why does this new EU enforcement matter? Audience trust should not be taken for granted. The rise of AI-generated content has the potential to erode consumer confidence - not only related to the AI-generated content itself but also to the streamer’s broader content catalog.
Although the current regulation is targeted at AI generated content, the implication for identification of provenance of all media sources is very clear. And among the few technical solutions that exist to enable an interoperable, reliable solution to address this requirement, implementations of the C2PA standards seem ready to meet this new challenge.
TThe first C2PA implementations were primarily targeted at static images–in some ways an extension of the EXIF type of source data that you see added to camera JPG files, but with the added power of digital cryptographic signatures to ensure integrity and authenticity, EZDRM has worked with industry partners and the C2PA standards bodies to harness the essential power of these rigorous C2PA principles to create standard ways to add C2PA provenance data to streaming video. This C2PA provenance information can now be added dynamically to on-demand and live video before CDN distribution. The approach taken applies equally well to clear and DRM-protected video, and is compatible with all global stream delivery formats.
The EZDRM product offering that enables this capability is the Provenance Signature Service. verified with a C2PA Level 2 certification, this service helps streaming providers manage C2PA content attribution data at scale and maintain comprehensive traceability across their content workflows.. It also enables simultaneous generation of signed provenance information for the Video manifest and for the companion EZDRM Provenance Signature Vault.
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The streaming player or device (such as a smartphone, smart TV, or tablet) then validates the content in real time and, crucially for this topic, offers a display of the verified source information to the consumer of the video.
We continue to work with other industry and community partners to help inform the consumer landscape about the increasingly critical questions of content origins, content credential labelling, and better awareness of AI-generated and AI-modified audio and video.