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The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA) recently notched a few more victories in their ongoing campaign to obliterate a hacked software program that cracks DVD encryption.

In the span of one busy week, the MPAA and the DVD CCA each won an injunction against Web site owners distributing the software and one of the software's originators, 16-year-old Norwegian Jon Johansen, had his home raided by police.

The DVD hacker's nightmare began on Thursday, Jan. 20. During a three-hour hearing in the Southern District of New York, Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan granted a preliminary injunction against three defendants who distribute the program, called DeCSS, on the Internet.

As a result, the defendants have been ordered to take down the material from their sites on copyright infringement charges.

"Judge Kaplan's ruling represents a great victory for creative artists, consumers and copyright owners everywhere," said Jack Valenti, MPAA chief executive officer. "I think this serves as a wake-up call to anyone who contemplates stealing intellectual property."

A day after that injunction had been granted, a second injunction, affecting over 70 Internet sites, was ordered in Santa Clara, Calif. This time, however, it was the DVD Copy Control Association pursuing the matter on grounds of trade secret disclosure.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit free-speech advocacy group, has funded the defendant's legal counsel. "These cases are not about piracy or hacking," said Tara Lemmey, executive director of the EFF. "They are about censorship of speech critical to science, education and innovation."

The crusade against DeCSS, developed to make the DVD format compatible with Linux operating software, leans heavily on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. Part of the DMCA made it illegal for a person to breach copyright-protected devices, but that part has yet to go into full effect because of exemptions for research and education.

"Today's decision is a major wake-up call for the $30 billion Linux community," said John Gilmore, EFF co-founder. "If Judge Kaplan's reading of the DMCA holds, then it will become illegal to build open-source products that can interoperate and/or compete with proprietary ones for displaying copyrighted information."

With the investigation in full force, Jon Johansen was targeted.

On Jan. 25, the home of Jon Johansen was raided by police, who confiscated two personal computers, a mobile phone and several computer disks, Norwegian newspapers reported. The National Authority of Fraud Investigation, a Norwegian federal agency, was apparently responding to lawsuits filed by the MPAA.

The MPAA uproar initially began when they noticed a copy of the DeCSS code on Johansen's Web site. The code theoretically allows a user with a DVD drive on a PC to make copies of DVD movies and store them on the hard drive, or copy them to rewritable CD-ROMs. Within weeks, the code had spread to hundreds of Web sites.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Cahners Publishing Company
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 3, 1997--Zoran Corporation (NASDAQ:ZRAN) and its subsidiary CompCore Multimedia today announced the completion of a license to distribute DVD technology with copy protection implemented in software. This license has been granted by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. acting as the CSS Interim Licensing organization. Zoran expects to start shipping software decryption and authentication as part of its "SoftDVDT" solution during the third quarter of this year. Zoran will demonstrate its SoftDVD and DVD hardware solutions this month at DVD 97 (June 10, Wyndham Hotel, San Jose, CA), PC Expo (June 17-19, Javits Convention Center, New York), and Windows World Expo Tokyo 97 (June 25-28, Nippon Convention Center, Tokyo).

Copy protection is an integral component of the overall DVD standard used for the authoring and playback of digital video and audio information. Copy protection decryption/authentication is required to play encrypted content such as recently released DVD titles. Until now, DVD copy protection was only licensed for use in hardware implementations of DVD. With the new license, Zoran is now authorized to ship an implementation of software copy protection with SoftDVD, its integrated MPEG-2/Dolby Digital software which provides an extremely low cost solution for DVD playback on the PC.

"Receiving approval from the CSS Interim Licensing organization to implement DVD copy protection in software achieves a major milestone in our PC DVD strategy," said Levy Gerzberg, president and CEO of Zoran. "The industry has been anxiously awaiting DVD software products with decryption. Zoran expects to be one of the first companies to provide an all software DVD solution with copy protection. With the availability of these products, we expect to see an accelerated acceptance of DVD players and DVD-enabled PCs based on Zoran's SoftDVD and other DVD products."

"Getting permission to ship copy protection software is the culmination of a lengthy process pursued by Zoran, CompCore and several major companies in the PC industry," said George Haber, executive vice president of Zoran Corporation. "Now that this hurdle has been removed, we believe the overall PC DVD market will expand dramatically. Zoran expects to be a major player in this market due to our continued leadership in providing high performance, low-cost solutions."

Through its subsidiary CompCore Multimedia, Zoran has been a leading advocate for software implementations of DVD playback systems for the personal computer. This early support began with CompCore being the first company to demonstrate software MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital decoding on the PC during the first half of 1996. Since then, Zoran and CompCore have announced and demonstrated the SoftDVD Navigator which is used to play DVD content through pre-programmed menus. Now, with the approval to distribute SoftDVD with copy protection software, Zoran is in a position to provide a complete software DVD solution for the PC.

SoftDVD is available in two basic configurations; 1.) an all-software version, and 2.) a software/hardware hybrid combination. To implement the all-software version of SoftDVD, an Intel microprocessor which supports MMX technology, an architectural enhancement for improving multimedia and communications on PCs, is required. The all-software version of SoftDVD will use software copy protection. For hybrid hardware/software solutions, SoftDVD interoperates with Zoran's latest single chip MPEG-2/Dolby Digital decoder, the ZR36700. With these types of hybrid implementations of SoftDVD, copy protection will be performed in hardware.

About Zoran

Zoran Corporation (NASDAQ:ZRAN) develops and markets integrated circuits and software for digital video and audio applications enabled by compression. CompCore Multimedia Inc., a leading provider of software and hardware cores for MPEG products, was acquired by Zoran Corporation in December of 1996. Zoran's product lines include JPEG codecs, MPEG video decoders, Dolby AC-3 and MPEG audio decoders and real-time DVD and Video CD software for the PC. The company's software is bundled by PC and graphic systems manufacturers for software-only or hardware assisted DVD ROM or Video CD playback software on the PC. Current applications for Zoran IC products include professional and consumer video editing systems, PC-based and stand-alone Video CD systems, DVD-ROM and stand-alone players, digital audio systems, and filmless digital cameras. Established in 1983, the company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and has additional operations in Haifa, Israel. Zoran's technologies have been adopted by many of the world's largest manufacturers including Acer, ATI, AT&T, Avid Technology, Cirrus Logic, Compaq, Denon, Diamond Multimedia, Dolby, FujiFilm, Fujitsu, Hitachi, IBM, Kenwood, Marantz, Matrox, Matsushita, Miro Computer, NEC, Packard Bell, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Yamaha and many others. For more information about Zoran, call (408) 919-4111.

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Note to Editors: SoftDVD and SoftPEG-2 are trademarks of Zoran Corporation. Dolby Digital is a registered trademark of Dolby Laboratories, Inc. MMX is a trademark of Intel Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Zoran/CompCore

Tanya Del Vecchio, 408/919-4229

E-Mail: tanya@zoran.com

or

VirtualPR

Carey Mitchell, 415/369-7833

E-Mail: carey@virtualpr.com

http://www.zoran.com

COPYRIGHT 1997 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

THE DVD standard for copy protection has a gaping loophole that allows consumer DVD recorders to copy up to three full length movies onto one blank disc.

No PC is needed, no modification to consumer decks and no special equipment.

The Copy Generation Management System is supposed to prevent this. The movie disc has trigger signals that should tell the DVD player to bury digital `flags', like teletext, in unused blank lines of the picture.

A digital recorder looks for these CGMS flags and refuses to record. But my extensive tests reveal that often the recorder is looking for flags which are missing or in the wrong place.

This is because the standard for CGMS copy protection is very unclear on PAL flagging. Although it clearly says the NTSC flags should go in lines 20 and 21, it just passes the buck for PAL to a European ETSI broadcast standard, which deals mainly with widescreen pictures, with side mention of copy protection in a completely different line 23.

A tangled web of divided responsibility for the standard, and the low take-up so far of expensive DVD recorders, has left the loophole largely unrecognised and unplugged.

But after seeing my practical demonstration, the British Video Association has alerted the movie studios. Said Mike Brown of the BVA's DVD Committee: "All you need is two decks, one connecting lead and one finger on a button."

The movie industry has so far been most worried about digital cloning with PCs and is currently suing US computer company 321 to try and stop the sale of the DVDXCopy software that makes this possible.

But analogue copying is better for pirates because the original disc often spreads the movie through two surface layers, and a digital dub needs two DVD blanks.

By connecting the analogue output of a consumer DVD player to the analogue input of a digital DVD recorder, the recorder recompresses the code, putting up to six hours of VHS quality on a single side. The studios stand to lose a fortune from home-to-home copying and playground swapsies.

As a result, DVD recorders are looking for flags that discs and players are not putting where they should be.

The effect is most dramatic when the movie studios save a few cents a disc on royalties by not using the proprietary Macrovision copy protection system. I found that Harry Potter from Warner and Men in Black and Spiderman from Columbia all copied perfectly from four out of seven DVD players I tested.

Panasonic developed the DVD protection system, but the company refuses to discuss it. A UK spokesman said: "We have had extensive discussions with Panasonic Japan but we cannot disclose any information."

John Hoy of LMI represents the Copy Control Association and admitted that "no specific line is defined for PAL or SECAM.

"Unless the requisite number of CCA members comes forward with a specification change proposal, no action to modify the specification can be made."

COPYRIGHT 2003 DMG World Media Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group

FREMONT, Calif. -- InterVideo, Inc. (Nasdaq:IVII) announced today that its latest version of InterVideo DVD Copy(TM) 2, the award-winning software for making fast, high- quality copies of personal DVD, VCD and SVCD videos, has received four out of five stars in PC Magazine's "First Looks." InterVideo DVD Copy 2 Platinum can be used to copy unencrypted(1) DVDs, VCDs and SVCDs with no loss of visual quality, content or features. With DVD Copy 2's user-friendly interface, a video can quickly be made in three easy steps: select source, target and burn.

PC Magazine's editors referred to DVD Copy 2 as the software that, with the exception of DVD ripping, "will supply the ability to do most everything else imaginable." With DVD Copy 2's easy-to-use editing tools, consumers can tailor home videos for sharing, and businesses can quickly customize marketing and training videos. Additionally, PC Magazine praised DVD Copy 2 as "a great way to make a personal 'best of' collection from discs you own." The complete review can be read in the June 8th issue of PC Magazine now available at newsstands or online at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1601371,00.asp

InterVideo DVD Copy 2 Platinum supports copying DVD and CD movies onto DVDs, VCDs, SVCDs, DivX(R) CDs or the hard drive and is up to 25 percent faster than the previous edition. InterVideo's robust encoding technology creates perfect movie copies without any loss in visual quality, content or features. The advanced functionality lets users customize their movies, with features such as Multiple DVD (M-DVD) that easily groups various DVD videos onto a single DVD, complete with automatic menu generation for easy navigation.

Pricing, Availability

InterVideo DVD Copy 2 Platinum is available today at InterVideo's web site, www.intervideo.com, and will be at retail outlets around the world later this year. Compatible with Windows(R) 2000 and XP systems, the suggested list prices are $49.95 for the Gold version, which excludes the Multiple DVD Merging and DivX CD features; and $79.95 for the full Platinum version.

About InterVideo, Inc.

InterVideo is a leading provider of DVD software. InterVideo has developed a technology platform from which it has created a broad suite of integrated multimedia software products that allow users to capture, edit, author, burn, distribute, and play digital video. InterVideo's software is bundled with products sold by the majority of the top ten PC OEMs ranked in terms of sales by IDC. The company is headquartered in Fremont, CA with regional offices in Europe, Taiwan, China and Japan. For more information, contact InterVideo at 510/651-0888 or visit the company's Web site at www.intervideo.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Except for the historical statements contained herein, the foregoing release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding InterVideo's DVD Copy 2 products. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially due to several factors, including but not limited to the ability to forecast customer behavior and recognize or respond to emerging trends, changing preferences or competitive factors, the market acceptance of our new products and product enhancements, the resolution of any notices of claims regarding alleged infringement of third parties' intellectual property rights, the ability to maintain or expand our relationship with PC OEMS and other risks and uncertainties. Please consult the various reports and documents filed by InterVideo with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to InterVideo's Form 10-Q for other risk factors that could cause actual results to differ. All forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and InterVideo disclaims any responsibility to update or revise any forward-looking statement provided in this news release.

InterVideo is a registered trademark and InterVideo DVD Copy 2 is a trademark of InterVideo, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

For more information, photos/illustrations or a review copy of InterVideo DVD Copy 2 Platinum, please contact pr@intervideo.com.

(1) Editors Note: InterVideo DVD Copy 2 does not bypass copy protection. DVDs containing CSS-encryption cannot be copied.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group