Five Electronic Companies In Watermark Effort

Five leading electronics companies have joined together to develop digital watermarking technology that will protect digital movies, videos and audio discs from piracy. The technology has been in development since 1997. Watermarking is critical for further digital progress, as entertainment companies simply will not want to deliver their content over the Internet and by other digital delivery means without robust copy protection. In 1998, IBM and NEC began working together on one watermark technology, while Hitachi, Pioneer Electronic and Sony jointly pursued a different approach. The five companies have now formed the Galaxy Group to develop a standard for watermarking. Rival Philips Electronics, Macrovision and Digimare will continue to pursue creating their own watermark technology standard. Both groupsí technology will be competing to be selected by the industry as the single standard. The selection is expected by summerís end.