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Digimarc Participates in Amicus Brief to U.S. Supreme Court Considering Landmark Copyright Infringement CaseBEAVERTON, Ore. --(Business Wire)-- Jan. 25, 2005 -- Digimarc describes how digital watermarking can address P2P piracy risks while enabling new business models that benefit artists, rights holders, consumers, and P2P suppliers What: Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ:DMRCE) has contributed to a friend-of-the-court brief filed on Monday with the U.S. Supreme Court, which is preparing to consider a landmark copyright infringement case, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios vs. Grokster. The brief was submitted "to make the Court aware of readily available technologies that can separate infringing from non-infringing content. These innovative technologies -- which are deployed around the world today in various analogous commercial settings -- show that the protection of copyrighted works and the development of technology and the marketplace for content can go hand-in-hand." A copy of the brief can be found at: http://www.digimarc.com/docs/supreme_court_brief.pdf Why: Digital watermarking provides a promising solution to the piracy concerns raised by peer-to-peer (P2P) content distribution. According to the brief, "There are various aspects to inhibiting piracy of copyrighted works on a P2P system, including (1) identifying digital files correctly, (2) handling the files in a manner appropriate to their identification, and (3) enabling illegitimate files to be forensically tracked to their source. There are many proven technologies available for each." Digital watermarking is a proven technology used by major TV broadcasters, movie studios, record labels, stock photo agencies, and governments around the world. The technology has been deployed in billions of content objects, including audio, video, digital images and printed materials. Digital watermarking is widely used to track, monitor, and manage use of content as it is distributed. Management of content can include linking to additional system or network information and metadata (e.g., rights management information) as well as enforcement of usage rules in local devices. The technology allows its customers to track - and, where appropriate, inhibit - the dissemination of "digitally watermarked" content. Employing technologies such as outlined in the brief helps enable all members of the value chain innovate new solutions and approaches to "create a broader method of distribution for copyright owners, a larger potential market of online purchasers (as opposed to infringers), a safer distribution system for consumers of content, and a more attractive and profitable marketplace for P2P service providers." Digimarc Comment: "A variety of commercially available implementations of digital watermarking exist today that can identify audio, video and image content, and associated rights management information, to assist in the handling of that content in ways that facilitate legitimate commerce and fair uses," said Reed Stager, vice president of Corporate Marketing, Licensing and Public Policy at Digimarc. "Digital watermarking has been widely deployed by record companies and movie studios to forensically track leaked content back to its source, and offers a viable and proven means of enabling trusted transactions and innovative models of digital content distribution while protecting copyrights." More information on how digital watermarking has been used by content owners to track and identify content can be found at: http://www.variety.com/ac2005_article/VR1117915795?nav=globes http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1358539,00.html http://www.thomson.net/EN/Home/Press/PressReleases/CorporatePress/ PREN040216.htm (Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field). http://pressreleases.universalstudios.com/viewrelease.asp? ReleaseID=1910&BUID=2 (Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field). http://www.teletrax.tv/index.php/About/News About Digimarc Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ:DMRCE), based in Beaverton, Oregon, is a leading supplier of secure media solutions used in a wide range of security, identification and digital media content applications. Digimarc provides products and services that enable production of more than 60 million personal identification documents, including two-thirds of U.S. driver licenses and IDs for more than 20 countries. Digimarc's digital watermarking technology provides a persistent digital identity for various media content and is used to enhance the security of financial documents, identity documents and digital images, and support other media rights management applications. Digimarc has an extensive intellectual property portfolio, with 185 issued U.S. patents with more than 4,000 claims, and more than 350 pending patent applications in digital watermarking, personal identification and related technologies. The company is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, with other U.S. offices in Burlington, Massachusetts; Fort Wayne, Indiana; San Francisco, California; and the Washington DC area; and European offices in London. Please go to www.digimarc.com for more company information. Securities Safe Harbor With the exception of historical information contained in this release, the matters described herein contain certain "forward-looking statements" that are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements, including the timing and nature of the Company's upcoming conference call, are based on management's current reasonable expectations and are subject to certain assumptions, risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances. The actual timing and nature of the Company's conference call may vary materially from those expressed or implied from the statements herein or from historical precedent, due to future events as well as changes in economic, business, competitive, technological and/or regulatory factors. More detailed information about risk factors is set forth in filings by Digimarc with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the most recent annual report on Form 10-K and the most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q. Digimarc is not obligated to (and expressly disclaims any obligation to) revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances, whether they arise as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. |
