MEDIA ADVISORY: Digital Watermarking Alliance Appoints New Officers, Members Unveil New Innovations in Digital Watermarking Applications

Santa Monica, CA, October 28, 2008 — The Digital Watermarking Alliance (DWA), an international group of industry-leading companies involved in commercializing digital watermarking solutions, has elected a new leadership slate for 2009:

• Chair: John Utley, Civolution
• Co-Vice Chairs: Bruce Davis, Digimarc; and Jian Zhao, Thomson
• Treasurer: Mario Petrocco, Verance
• Secretary: Neil Lofgren, GCS Research

Recent industry developments and news demonstrating continued momentum for digital watermarking solutions include:

• Verimatrix has recently been awarded new patents for unique features within VideoMark™, its user-specific, forensic watermarking technology. The patents cover processes on how the forensic mark is invisibly and robustly embedded in video content, and converted to a human recognizable image during extraction. As has been proven in multiple evaluations, a human readable mark withstands more sophisticated video manipulations such as cropping and geometric distortions, than those which rely on machine extraction alone. Verimatrix’s end-to-end VideoMark solution includes the recovery of the unique client identification from all unauthorized analog and digital distribution formats. The mark extracted from pirated content, which never contains personal subscriber data, can be traced back to the last legal recipient of the content by the operator.
• GCS Research announced the official release of GeoMarc®3.0 for both desktop and server side computing environments. GeoMarc is specifically designed for the Geospatial Industry, a community that relies heavily on satellite imagery and other pixel-based datasets for everyday analysis. GeoMarc uses digital watermarking technology to reliably embed key pieces of information about the satellite data and the geographic area depicted into the image itself. This capability is extremely valuable to geospatial analysts, who describe the watermark payload as “metadata.” Metadata, or “data about the data,” is considered the most valuable component of geospatial datasets. If an analyst or other geospatial professional cannot determine key facts such as when the image was acquired, the original resolution, satellite sensor type, where the area is located, licensing restrictions, and other such facts, the image becomes simply a pretty picture. GeoMarc helps protect and add value to the geospatial community’s investment in satellite data. GeoMarc is currently being used in both the military and intelligence sector and the private sector, including satellite data providers and their customers.
• Thomson recently announced that TF1, France’s leading TV broadcaster, selected Thomson NexGuard™ content protection solution to secure its business-to-business preview content platform, TF1PRO. In addition, Thomson and Conax successfully integrated Conax advanced chipset pairing technology with Thomson’s NexGuard set-top box watermarking solution to furnish digital TV operators with stronger tools for fighting illegal redistribution of premium content. For more information, please visit: http://contentsecurity.thomson.net
• Digimarc Corporation announced the availability of its newly enhanced Digimarc for Images plug-ins, shipped in-box with Adobe PhotoShop®, enabling photographers and corporations to better manage their photos and image assets by communicating copyright information and owner contact details, and reporting to owners on both authorized and unauthorized use of images online. Digimarc for Images enables content owners to place a persistent, invisible digital identifier (digital watermark) into photographs and other images. The company also offers a Search Service that continuously crawls the Web looking for such watermarked images. Digimarc will offer a free Webcast on November 13 for Adobe users interested in learning more about digitally watermarking their images using Adobe PhotoShop®. For further information on the Webcast pricing and availability, please go to www.digimarc.com/images.
• The business unit formerly known as Philips Content Identification announced on Monday October 20th the completion of its spin-out from Philips Corporate Technologies. The company now operates under the new name Civolution B.V. The spin-out allows Civolution the flexibility to take new strategic directions beyond the current scope of Philips and to focus fully on meeting market demands as they evolve. The spin-out includes Teletrax, the world’s only global broadcast intelligence service (and former joint-venture of Philips and Medialink) and Mediahedge, the content identification and monetization platform.
• Earlier this year Teletrax announced a multi-year contract renewal with the NBC Agency, a division of NBC Universal Inc., to electronically monitor and analyze affiliate stations’ usage of its on-air television show promotions across all 210 U.S. television markets. And Philips announced the world’s first flat panel TV with integrated watermarking for the hospitality market. In an effort to deter the unlawful copying of HD movies in hotels, Philips is leading the industry with its integrated VTrack digital watermarking. To find out more visit the Civolution website: www.civolution.com; Teletrax: www.teletrax.tv; or Mediahedge: www.mediahedge.com.
• The DWA will co-host the “Content Rights/ Content Monetization Dinner” at Digital Hollywood Fall, on Wednesday October 29.

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 AquaMobile, Civolution B.V., DataMark Technologies, Digimarc (Nasdaq: DMRC), GCS Research, Gibson, ISAN-IA, MarkAny, MediaGrid, Media Science International, Signum, Streamburst, The Nielsen Company, Thomson (Euronext 18453; NYSE: TMS), Université catholique de Louvain, Verance, Verimatrix, and Widevine Technologies. For more information, please visit www.digitalwatermarkingalliance.org

CONTACT: For media inquiries, please contact Delisa Davis of RH Strategic (Tel: (202) 585-0210; E-mail: ddavis@rhstrategic.com)