Major Movie Studios Specify Digital Watermarking for Digital Cinema
Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC) today announced that digital watermarking technology has been incorporated as part of the Digital Cinema System Specification, which was announced yesterday in Hollywood by Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), to help deter piracy of digital movies shown at theaters around the world. DCI is a joint venture of Disney, Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal and Warner Bros. Studios.
The Digital Cinema System Specification offers industry guidelines designed to help spur deployment of digital cinema systems for the hundreds of thousands of movie theater screens in the United States and around the world while establishing uniform levels of security, distribution, performance, reliability and quality control.
Digital watermarking makes a unique technical contribution to the movie industry’s long-awaited transition from film formats to digital for theatrical release. The technology is part of a package of security features that protects content owners’ copyrights in this exciting new format and distribution channel.
According to the specification, digital watermarking is required in both the video and audio streams of digital movies, where it will be used as a forensic tool to help identify the theater, location, production version and even the date and time that a film plays at a specific theater.
“The requirements for secure digital distribution have been one of the stumbling blocks to widespread deployment of digital cinema. By incorporating digital watermarking in the distribution requirements, the movie industry can now confidently deliver digital movies to theaters worldwide and offer consumers more choice and richer entertainment experiences in their local theaters,” said Reed Stager, vice president, Corporate Licensing, Marketing and Public Policy, Digimarc.
Stager continued, “We are pleased that many of our business partners are interested in supporting this initiative, based on significant investments in research and development. We believe that the studios will get a high level of support from technology suppliers. We will do all that we can to support the success of the movie industry and our business partners’ efforts to contribute to that success.”
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) estimates that movie piracy costs the entertainment industry $3 billion a year in lost revenue. Because digital watermarks survive digital-to-analog conversion, they can address one of the most common piracy threats identified by the MPAA – the illegal recording of movies from theater screens, by employees or movie-goers, using hand-held video cameras – and help provide forensic evidence for future investigations or prosecution.
Digital watermarking from Digimarc and its business partners is increasingly being deployed by the entertainment industry to more effectively manage media content and associated rights and deter piracy. Nearly all the major movie studios and record labels as well as major TV broadcasters around the world are beginning to use digital watermarking-based solutions to help identify and protect copyrighted content.
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 200 issued U.S. patents with more than 4,000 claims, and more than 400 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; and the Washington DC area; and international offices in London and Mexico. Please go to www.digimarc.com for more Company information.
About DCI
DCI was created in March 2002 as a joint venture of Disney, Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal and Warner Bros. Studios. DCI’s primary purpose is to establish and document voluntary specifications for an open architecture for digital cinema that ensures a uniform and high level of technical performance, reliability and quality control. DCI will also facilitate the development of business plans and strategies to help spur deployment of digital cinema systems in movie theaters. For more information, visit www.dcimovies.com.
