Reciprocal and ContentGuard Take Pearson Education Canada Into the Land of Digital Publishing

Business Wire, Sept 12, 2000

Business Editors and Technology Writers

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 12, 2000

Pearson Education Canada Live with Joint ePCS Offering; `One-Stop'

Digital Rights Publishing Solution Enables Consumers to Download and

Purchase Select Chapters or Entire Book

Reciprocal(TM), Inc., the global leader in digital rights management (DRM) transaction services, and ContentGuard(TM), Inc., a leading provider of digital rights management solutions for all forms of content, continued their push into the digital publishing market today by announcing that Pearson Education Canada, Canada's largest educational publisher and a subsidiary of the UK-based Pearson publishing group, is live with its digital content site.

Located at http://publishing.reciprocalrights.com/pearson, selected rights-enabled, digital content from the three divisions of Pearson Education Canada: Professional Trade and Reference, School and Higher Education areas is available for download.

Pearson Education Canada is utilizing the electronic Publishing Clearing Service (ePCS), a joint offering of Reciprocal and ContentGuard, Inc., to offer their high-value content over the Internet. With the help of ePCS, students and other readers have the option of purchasing either an entire digital book or in some instances purchasing select chapters, some of which may be viewed as a sample preview.

"ePCS is a proven outsourced model for digital publishing," said Matt Moynahan, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Reciprocal Publishing. "Consumers who hit the Pearson site will love the ease of use as well as the ability to choose and download the chapters that are most relevant to their studies or their interests. This enables students, educators, consumers and publishers to streamline the education and Internet publishing process, and Reciprocal is thrilled to play a driving role in the advent of this new digital medium."

Content purchased from the Pearson site remains protected throughout its life and is bound to one unique device, e.g., a student's PC. Students purchasing the content may view it in protected PDF format, provided they have Adobe Acrobat v.4.05 or greater installed on their desktop. If the content is emailed as an attachment, the content recipient is directed to a page within the Pearson Education Canada store to acquire unique content usage rights.

"We were looking for an outsourced model that would establish an important element of our Internet distribution strategy across three of our business units, while at the same time ensuring that our customers received a positive and rewarding new digital publishing experience," said Allan Reynolds, Chief Operating Officer, Pearson Education Canada. "ePCS from Reciprocal and ContentGuard is an excellent solution for securely distributing our valuable content, and we're confident that people will enjoy and benefit from this new type of offering."

DRM technology and services protect and control access to digital content, so that it can be distributed to end users without risking a loss of control of copyright for the content owner. ePCS combines ContentGuard Inc.'s DRM technology and content commerce applications with Reciprocal's robust and scalable Digital Clearing Service for rights enforcement and clearing, informational and financial tracking, reporting and 24/7 customer support.

"When distributing content over the Internet, publishers are looking for DRM solutions that not only ensure copyright protection but also let them offer new levels of flexibility to their customers," said Ranjit Singh, president and chief operating officer of ContentGuard, Inc. "Using ePCS, Pearson Education Canada is able to provide a broad range of purchase options for consumers, making its digital text books a convenient and compelling alternative to traditional hard-copy."

Pearson Education Canada joins a variety of leading publishers that have recently outsourced their digital publishing and e-commerce services to Reciprocal and ContentGuard's ePCS offering, including Houghton Mifflin, McGraw Hill, Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishing Group, and iBooks.com, among others. Outsourcing enables these companies to get valuable content online quickly and securely, with virtually no administrative effort on their part.

About Pearson Education Canada

Pearson Education Canada is Canada's largest educational publisher and a well-known publisher and distributor of professional, trade and reference titles. A subsidiary of Pearson plc in the UK, Pearson Education Canada grew out of an integration of the Canadian operations of Addison Wesley Longman and Prentice Hall in 1999. Pearson Education Canada publishes textbooks, learning programs, and media for higher education, high schools and elementary schools. The rapidly growing trade group produces leading consumer titles on computers, business, self-help, cooking, and health.

About ContentGuard, Inc.

ContentGuard, Inc, launched in April 2000, offers digital rights management (DRM) solutions designed to encourage Internet distribution of digital content such as music, eBooks and business reports. ContentGuard's cross-platform technology, originally developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and suite of services allow content owners to manage the digital distribution process by tracking usage, preventing unauthorized access and enabling a range of business models for user access. With operations in McLean, Va, Palo Alto, Ca, and El Segundo, Ca, the company has key relationships with Microsoft Corporation, Xerox Corporation, Adobe Systems Inc., and Reciprocal. For more information, please visit http://www.contentguard.com.