Faultline famously described NAB 2024 as a graveyard for content protection—laying out a scene of crumbling CAS contracts and decrepit DRMs. But a year later, something unexpected has happened—signs of real engineering muscle and commercial readiness emerging from some of the usual suspects. From EZDRM’s hardened anti-piracy crusade, to castLabs’ forensic watermarking flair, to Friend MTS sounding the alarm on pirate economy surrealism, and Viaccess-Orca (VO) finally fessing up to its identity crisis—there was a tangible sense of direction this year. Even if some of that direction is straight toward the edge of the cliff. EZDRM: Long live the NorthStar The most tangible innovation we saw on the show floor at NAB 2025 came via a demo from EZDRM, debuting…