Digital Watermarking Alliance member companies include Cinea, Digimarc, GCS Research, Jura, MediaGrid, Media Science International, Philips Electronics, Signum, Teletrax, Thomson, Verance, and Verimatrix

Los Angeles, Calif., Sept. 20, 2006 — The Digital Watermarking Alliance, an international group of industry leading companies, today announced its formation to promote the value of digital watermarking to content owners, industry, policy makers and consumers (www.digitalwatermarkingalliance.org).

With movies, music and photos increasingly being distributed and shared digitally across numerous mediums, and printed materials such as IDs, financial instruments and product packaging at risk to counterfeiting, fraud and theft, protecting the rights and integrity of these assets and enabling legitimate uses has become critical. At the same time, consumers are demanding instant access to entertainment content — any time, any place and in any format.

Recognizing this critical juncture in the digital revolution, the Digital Watermarking Alliance (DWA) has been formed by leading companies to advocate for digital watermarking technology and solutions that will protect and identify content while enabling the freedom and mobility that is expected by today’s consumer.

“Digital watermarking is enjoying a steady resurgence of interest now that the media industry is finding more and more applications for it throughout the content lifecycle — from creation through to production, packaging, distribution, and consumption,” said Bill Rosenblatt, president, GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies and Editor, DRM Watch (www.drmwatch.com). “The Digital Watermarking Alliance will perform an important role in educating the industry on the wide variety of uses for digital watermarking, exchanging best practices, and generally facilitating the growth of this field whose potential is only beginning to be tapped.”

The Digital Watermarking Alliance comprises 12 companies that are successfully delivering digital watermarking solutions to various markets, including media and entertainment, state and national governments, mobile communications and other commercial markets. Member companies include: Cinea, Digimarc, GCS Research, Jura, MediaGrid, Media Science International, Philips Electronics, Signum, Teletrax, Thomson, Verance, and Verimatrix. (http://www.digitalwatermarkingalliance.org/membership.asp)

Digital watermarks can identify copyrighted content and associated rights, during and after distribution, to determine copyright ownership and facilitate rights management policy while enabling innovative new content distribution and usage models. Digital watermarks are broadly deployed with billions of watermarked objects and hundreds of millions of watermark detectors in the market, supporting various applications. (http://www.digitalwatermarkingalliance.org/casestudies.asp)

For more information about the Digital Watermarking Alliance, please visit: www.digitalwatermarkingalliance.org

CONTACT: For media inquiries, please contact Leslie Constans (lconstans@digimarc.com or +503-469-4620) or Jeremy Bartram (Bartram@itstrategies.com or +206-264-1999).

About the Digital Watermarking Alliance
The Digital Watermarking Alliance (DWA) is an international alliance of industry leading companies that deliver valuable digital watermarking technology and solutions to a broad range of customers and markets around the world. Member companies include Cinea, Digimarc, GCS Research, Jura, MediaGrid, Media Science International, Philips Electronics, Signum, Teletrax, Thomson, Verance, and Verimatrix. For more information, please visit www.digitalwatermarkingalliance.org