It wraps the objects in a cryptographic package that controls and monitors their usage. This effectively establishes conditional access to the goods. Unfortunately these packages put constraints that are unacceptable for professional applications of videos and pictures. One such constraint is that the goods cannot be unwrapped without loosing security. As an alternative to this kind of cryptographic packages, the image industry uses watermarks.
Watermarks are invisible seals applied to electronic documents to attest their origin.
Such watermarks do not prevent illegal usage but, at least, they make it possible to trace the legal owner. The project is lead by Thompson CFS and due to complete in June '98 Okapi , a project exploring ways towards conditional access systems. The project was lead by the University of Louvain and was completed in October '97. The Octalis project is organising two trials. The trial will take place during the Football World Cup.