Macrovision awarded CD copy protection patent

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, August 12, 2002

Macrovision Corporation (Nasdaq:MVSN), a developer and supplier of copy protection, electronic licensing and digital rights management (DRM) technologies, has announced that it has been awarded U.S. Patent #6,353,890 for a method of copy protecting CD content ("Method For Copy Protecting A Record Carrier, Copy Protected Record Carrier And Means For Detecting Access Control Information").

With the proliferation of the CD burner, music labels and software publishers find unauthorized copying is eroding their businesses. The installed base of CD burners (CD recordable and rewriteable drives) was over 120 million units at year-end 2001, and is estimated to reach over 200 million units by year-end 2002 worldwide(1). "This patent is fundamental to our SafeDisc and SafeAuthenticate technologies which are used to counter the threat that ubiquitous CD recordable drives pose to our customers' business," said Peter Newman, vice president of Engineering at Macrovision and the original inventor. "By selectively using technology from this patent, content creators, labels and distributors can protect their commercial rights and, at the same time, improve the customer's experience with their content. For example, in SafeDisc, we use the technology to copy protect software; in SafeAuthenticate, we use the technology to conveniently authenticate and copy protect the rights for pre-compressed audio and video content either locally on the media or over the Internet. Since this is a broad-based technology, we expect other extensions in its usage in the future, on other types of optical media such as DVD."

Bill Krepick, president and CEO of Macrovision added, "The SafeDisc patent augments our portfolio of patented copy protection technologies, enabling us to offer critical solutions for the music and software industries."