MEDIA ADVISORY: Digital Watermarking Finding Traction in Multiple Industries and Applications

Amsterdam, September 10, 2009 — The Digital Watermarking Alliance (DWA) announced that 2009 has so far been a banner year in the commercialization and adoption of digital watermarking solutions:

DSNs represent a new way to track media content by digitally watermarking audio or video content such as music, movies or TV programming with unique, imperceptible digital identification numbers. Unlike Digital Rights Management, DSNs allow consumers to freely access content and make multiple copies for backup use or for different playing devices. Should the content be used illegally, however, the DSN can be associated back to the original buyer.

• aquaMobile announced that readers of the Autofácil magazine (Madrid, Spain) can now view videos, listen to statements or expanded access to related information with one click of their mobile phones. This revolution is made possible by CLIC2C, the application that can recognize digital watermarking in printed materials and link to multimedia content via any mobile phone. Autofácil’s use of this technology marks a new era and offers its readers a new reading experience beyond words and pictures.
• Diario Libre, the leading newspaper in the Dominican Republic, is now the first newspaper in that country to commercialize CLIC2C and TEXT2C technologies by aquaMobile. Omnimedia, the newspaper’s publisher, will implement it on all its products. CLIC2C will be used on advertisements, articles, photos, contests, promotions and other company products, in addition to the newspaper.
• For IBC 2009, Verimatrix unveiled the profile of its next generation Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS™) 3.0 core architecture featuring revenue-generating security enhancements. VideoMark™, the company’s user-specific forensic watermarking solution, comes as a standard feature and supports all configurations of its VCAS 3.x server to serve as an additional layer of security that extends beyond the digital delivery domain. On Sept. 7, Verimatrix announced that Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Corporation (VNPT) is the latest customer to include VideoMark as part of its overall VCAS security deployment. Download its latest whitepaper on watermarking as a revenue generating tool at www.verimatrix.com/wm
• On July 21st, Civolution announced that it acquired Thomson Software and Technology Solutions (STS) watermarking business from Thomson S.A. With this acquisition Civolution is able to offer an even broader and richer portfolio of content identification and tracking technologies to enhance its current technologies, products and services portfolio. The combination of the two businesses gave birth to a unique technology and service solutions provider that will benefit media content owners and distributors in the fast growing market for audio and video content tracking, management and monetization. As a result of this amalgamation, Thomson became a shareholder in Civolution.
• Quinta Industries, a leading European provider of content postproduction and distribution services, and Studiocanal a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canal+, announced the launch of a system for secure transfer of film files using Civolution’s NexGuard Content Protection solution introduced by Thomson STS now part of Civolution. The launch follows a successful introduction of the system at Cannes’ 2009 Film Market.
• Mexican broadcaster Televisa, the world’s leading Spanish language media corporation, working in tandem with leading Spanish systems integrator Tedial, selected Civolution’sbroadcast intelligence service Teletrax, to provide broadcast advertising verification services. Tedial has integrated Civolution’s watermarking technology into its broadcast process management system known as Ficus, automatically watermarking advertising content ensuring that all selected media assets are protected before distribution.
• Eurovision signed an agreement with Civolution to integrate the Teletrax video watermarking based monitoring solution into its world feed distribution services. Using Teletrax’s unique global television monitoring network of over 1,500 channels and its web-based reporting tool, Eurovision will report back to its clients with precise broadcast information about the reach and performance of their content.
• ADB, a leading supplier of technology to the global digital television industry, has integrated Civolution’s PayTV watermarking technology into its digital TV set-top boxes. The PayTV solution will embed a unique watermark into video material each time an on-demand program is distributed, enabling content owners to identify the source of any potential copies. The watermark will survive camcorder-capture and subsequent degradation of the content through Internet usage.
• MarkAny announced that its MAO™ and MAVI™ audio and video watermarking technology has been selected to be implemented by one of the largest global music labels, for both pre-release and commercial distribution of music and music video content. Working in cooperation with Media Science International, a leading music industry solution provider and fellow DWA member, MarkAny’s watermarking technology will be used to implement the RIAA watermarking specification.
• Digimarc Corporation announced it entered into an agreement with The Nielsen Company to jointly launch two new companies that will leverage the intellectual property assets of Digimarc and the wealth of consumer and business data amassed by Nielsen. Through the creation of these joint ventures, Digimarc and Nielsen will expand and extend their existing relationship to enhance television viewing, facilitate mobile commerce, and create valuable other new opportunities for television networks and consumer brands to more deeply engage with audiences.
• In May the DWA released key findings from a new survey on piracy deterrence. The study, conducted by Interpret, aimed to determine whether the inclusion of Digital Serial Numbers (DSNs) in online content would deter illegal file sharing. The results showed that DSNs would deter illegal downloading among 33 percent of the 994-person sample and deter illegal uploading among 52 percent. Unlike Digital Rights Management, DSNs allow consumers to freely access content and make multiple copies for backup use or for different playing devices. Should the content be used illegally, however, the DSN can be associated back to the original buyer. The LA Times covered the study in “Watermarks, a friendlier DRM?“
• In March the DWA submitted comments to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in response to its notice of inquiry on the Child Safe Viewing Act of 2007. This Act directed the FCC to initiate a proceeding to examine “the existence and availability of advanced blocking technologies that are compatible with various communications devices or platforms.” The DWA outlined ways in which digital watermarking is an ideal technology for content identification in the context of parental control of content.
• In the Spring the DWA released a new white paper to aid the mobile industry in distinguishing between the various technologies available to identify the content of printed media and seamlessly link to related resources in the digital world. Enabling New Mobile Applications: A Comparison of Technologies,” educates the reader on the three main technologies currently used in applications for mobile phones to enable interactive printed materials: digital watermarking, digital fingerprinting and barcodes. The paper is available for download at www.digitalwatermarkingalliance.org

About Digital Watermarking
A MultiMedia Intelligence study identified digital watermarking and fingerprinting as a key growth market that could surpass $500 million by 2012¹. Digital watermarking is the process by which identifying data is woven into media content, giving it a unique, digital identity. Imperceptible to the human senses yet easily recognized by special software detectors, a digital watermark remains constant even through recording, manipulation and editing, compression and decompression, encryption, decryption and broadcast — without affecting the quality of the content. Digital watermarks can identify copyrighted content and associated rights, during and after distribution, to determine copyright ownership and enable rights management policy while enabling innovative new content distribution and usage models. Today, digital watermarks are broadly deployed with billions of watermarked objects and hundreds of millions of watermark detectors in the market, supporting various commercial and government applications.

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, DataMark Technologies, Digimarc, ISAN, MarkAny, MSI, Streamburst, Université catholique de Louvain, Verance, Verimatrix, and Widevine. For more information, please visit www.digitalwatermarkingalliance.org

CONTACT: For media inquiries, please contact Michael Thomas of RH Strategic Tel: (206) 264-0246; E-mail: mthomas@rhstrategic.com