NEC has announced that its video content identification technology has been incorporated in the upcoming Mpeg 7 video standard. However this is not good news for anyone who wants to copy any film they might have bought.

The technology creates a signature that is compared against one from the original file to determine whether the video has been altered. According to NEC this will allow the owners of the video to automatically "detect illegal copies" and "prevent illegal upload of video content" without their consent. It will also prevent anyone sticking in subtitles.

Each frame has its own signature, meaning that even minute changes to the file such as adding subtitles, watermarks or dogtags, and of course cutting out adverts, will alter the overall signature of the video.