From 1 to 100 000 — The Custos Mission to Protect Filmmakers all Over the World
In early 2016, we launched the first version of the product that is now called Screener Copy. We needed a way to demonstrate the blockchain tracking technology that we developed at Stellenbosch University. The first version of Screener Copy had very basic functionality: Users could upload their movies, we would watermark it with the Custos tracking technology, and then send out the copies to the intended recipients. A lot of the services we provided back then relied on one of our engineers manually performing actions on the back end to get each copy watermarked and sent.
Our first pilot customer was Indigenous Film Distribution — the premier indie film distributor in South Africa. Indigenous Film Distribution has the pleasure to distribute Oscar-nominated movies like iNumber Number, critically acclaimed controversial movies such as The Wound, and globally successful animations such as Khumba. We were incredibly proud to have such a prestigious customer on our pilot program, and we are happy to report that they are still one of our favourite customers.
Since then, our customer base has grown rapidly, and Screener Copy has become a fully fledged product servicing filmmakers all over the world. Our customers are as far-flung as India, the UK, US, Norway, Canada, Japan, Namibia, and Germany. The pilot watermarking was replaced with cutting edge imperceptible watermarks carrying our tracking technology, and a fancy new user dashboard makes recipient management and analytics a breeze. For some larger customers we have even white labeled the platform, allowing them to add custom branding and workflows, and host it on their own domains.
This month, just about 2 years after sending our first screener, we have reached 100 000 copies sent, a big milestone for us! As luck would have it, it was a local title that was the 100 000th copy. We are incredibly proud to have helped our customers all over the world protect their content. And protect them we have:
Of the 100 000 copies that were sent, we have not had a single leak.
How’s that for effective? Depending on what market you are in, between 20% and 60% of screener copies (early release copies of movies) are leaked. We have taken that down to zero in every market we have entered, all with the power of the blockchain.
Here’s to the next 100 000, and all the amazing and passionate filmmaker and distributors we love to serve.
Our head of marketing wanted me to remind everyone that you can get $40 worth of free content protection if you sign up for Screener Copy now. Are you happy now, Tash?
