IBM Spearheading Intellectual Property Protection Technology for Information on the Internet; Cryptolope Containers Have Arrived

Business Wire, May 1, 1996

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 1996--IBM today announced the commercial availability of Cryptolope(i) containers, secure packaging for digital information, enabling Internet users to buy and sell content securely over the Internet.

Cryptolope technology is a fundamental part of IBM's new infoMarket service (http://www.infomarket.ibm.com), an important implementation of IBM's network computing strategy. IBM infoMarket combines a sophisticated search engine with an unmatched body of content, secure container technology and IBM's expertise in transaction and billing management, to provide a framework for secure electronic commerce.

"The Internet is a natural conduit for the transmission of information, but publishers previously have been afraid to put their valuable content on the 'Net for fear that it may be tampered with or that they will not receive compensation for their works," said Jeff Crigler, vice president, IBM infoMarket. "The IBM infoMarket service provides the technology to address those needs."

IBM infoMarket also announced a number of new content providers today. With a growing number of content and technology providers now aligned with the service, including Reuters New Media, Jupiter Communications and CMP Publications, IBM infoMarket is a leading provider of content on the Internet. Users benefit from IBM infoMarket's ability to search through commercial content -- some of which was previously unavailable on the World Wide Web -- as well as USENET newsgroups and other leading content sources, a capability unequaled by any other search engine in the market today.

Once targeted information is found, commercial content will be delivered in Cryptolope containers, accompanied by a content abstract that provides users with the essential product knowledge they need to make a buying decision. The content abstract may also include the content source, summary, author, last update, size, and price, as well as any unique terms of sale. Once the user has decided to open the contents of a Cryptolope container, a transparent digital key is issued unlocking the material contained within.

To view a free document, the user clicks on the article and the information appears on the desktop. To view priced content, the user agrees to any unique terms of the Cryptolope container that are prepared by the rights holder and contained in the content abstract.

Users of IBM infoMarket will be able to retrieve and download Cryptolope containers from the infoMarket service Web site using an IBM infoMarket helper application, initially for Netscape(ii) 1.1 or greater, and Windows(ii) 3.1 or Windows 3.1.1. Windows 95, OS/2 and Mac/OS versions are planned.

Superdistribution Can Provide Incremental Revenue

A user can forward a Cryptolope container to others allowing content providers to take advantage of "superdistribution", a new business model that, if permitted by the publisher, allows the customer to send the Cryptolope to others who may be interested in its contents, thus facilitating the first phase of superdistribution. Publishers can now take advantage of the Internet as a valuable business medium by which to sell their information, over and over again.

The IBM infoMarket service has created a clearinghouse for commercial content providers to track the payment, delivery and authenticity of contents held within a Cryptolope.

The content provider sets marketing and pricing guidelines for the use of commercial content or technology services. This allows the owners of this valuable information to have greater control over distribution, appearance and price of their content.

Wide-Area Search of Distributed Data

The search feature of the IBM infoMarket service can take a single search request and simultaneously search multiple, disparate, and distributed information sources returning relevance ranked results. IBM infoMarket's powerful search capabilities allow users to simultaneously investigate the broad scope of the Internet as well as authorized, private commercial content. Keyword and Boolean search requests allow for more complex information queries using OR, AND or NEAR connectors. These search capabilities allow for manual selection of sources that will best contain the desired information to meet users needs.

IBM infoMarket also provides a feature which enables users to search by source. Users can pick an individual source, all or a group of sources in a category, or select all sources. Additionally, search results can be received in brief or with more details. Detailed results provide the user with the content abstract, which may include source, author, excerpt, date, size, and pricing information.

Rich News and Business Information

New content and technology providers for IBM infoMarket include the following:

-- CMP Publications(ii) provides publishing, marketing, and information services to the high-technology market

-- Excalibur Technologies Corporation(ii) provides the first set of tools for creating retrieval solutions for text, images, and other forms of digital data;