Macrovision and TTR Technologies Announce Partnership to Develop Music CD Copy Protection System
"..The two companies plan to pool their respective technologies and related patents for Music CD and DVD Audio copy protection. Macrovision will be responsible for licensing the technology to music rights owners on an exclusive basis worldwide. The two companies intend to work cooperatively with encoder manufacturers and CD replicators to implement the manufacturing and quality control systems necessary to commercialize the jointly developed Music CD copy protection technology. As part of the strategic partnership agreement, Macrovision intends to make an 11.4% equity investment in TTR, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions.
An additional aspect of the agreement grants Macrovision an exclusive license to TTR's CD and DVD signature technology and related encoder software that is used to embed signatures during the replication process. Digital signatures are a critical element of both Macrovision's and TTR's computer software copy protection systems. Macrovision intends to use this technology to enhance its existing CD-ROM software copy protection technologies which it currently markets under the SafeDisc and SafeCast brands. TTR and Macrovision intend to work cooperatively to transition existing software customers of TTR's DiscGuard technology to SafeDisc or SafeCast early in the year 2000.
"..This agreement allows Macrovision to leverage its existing CD copy protection technology base and more than a decade of experience in developing and marketing copy protection solutions to the home video and multimedia software industries, to address important problems currently being faced by the music industry on a worldwide basis,'' stated John Ryan, Chairman and CEO of Macrovision. "The partnership arrangement with TTR on this project will take advantage of the collective skills, patents, and expertise of each company - and should enable us to deliver a commercially viable Music CD copy protection system to the music industry..'' NULL
An additional aspect of the agreement grants Macrovision an exclusive license to TTR's CD and DVD signature technology and related encoder software that is used to embed signatures during the replication process. Digital signatures are a critical element of both Macrovision's and TTR's computer software copy protection systems. Macrovision intends to use this technology to enhance its existing CD-ROM software copy protection technologies which it currently markets under the SafeDisc and SafeCast brands. TTR and Macrovision intend to work cooperatively to transition existing software customers of TTR's DiscGuard technology to SafeDisc or SafeCast early in the year 2000.
"..This agreement allows Macrovision to leverage its existing CD copy protection technology base and more than a decade of experience in developing and marketing copy protection solutions to the home video and multimedia software industries, to address important problems currently being faced by the music industry on a worldwide basis,'' stated John Ryan, Chairman and CEO of Macrovision. "The partnership arrangement with TTR on this project will take advantage of the collective skills, patents, and expertise of each company - and should enable us to deliver a commercially viable Music CD copy protection system to the music industry..'' NULL