| NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 1999--TTR Technologies, Inc. announced today, that it has signed an agreement with Macrovision Corporation to jointly develop and market a copy protection product designed to thwart the illegal copying of audio optical media (audio CDs, DVDs, etc.). The new product will be based upon TTR's MusicGuardTM technology and upon related Macrovision technology which has been developed at Macrovision's C-Dilla labs subsidiary.
As part of the new relationship between the two companies, Macrovision will purchase, subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, an 11.4% equity interest in TTR.
Upon making the equity investment, Macrovision will also acquire an exclusive license to TTR's CD and DVD signature technology and related encoder software that is used to embed signatures during the replication process.
Mr. Marc Tokayer, Chairman of TTR said, "TTR's promising new music protection technology and Macrovision's sales and marketing ability in the global copy protection markets are a great combination for success." Mr. Tokayer added, "We look forward towards working closely with Macrovision. We expect a close relationship with Macrovision to maximize our shareholders' value."
Mr. John Ryan,Chairman and CEO of Macrovision ,stated ,"This partnership will take advantage of the collective skills ,patents and expertise of our two companies -and should enable us to deliver a commercially viable Music CD copy protection system to the music industry."
About CD Piracy
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the recording industry loses about $5 billion annually to global piracy of recorded music, of which $1 million a day in the U.S. alone is related to unauthorized back to back casual copying of Music CDs. Two recent developments have caused this issue to become one of the highest priorities in the industry today. First, until recently, an investment of millions of dollars was required to pirate high quality audio CD's. Today, however, one can purchase a CD writer or "burner" for as little as $180 and blank recordable discs (CD-Rs) are widely available for less than $1. With these simple components, anyone can easily and inexpensively set up a pirate CD factory. The second recent development is the acceptance and widespread use of MP3 compression technology. This technology has made the Internet a popular vehicle for the electronic transmission of music.
About TTR
TTR Technologies, Inc., a leader in digital anti-piracy technology, designs, develops, markets, and sells proprietary anti-piracy products .The company has developed and commercialized products for the software and entertainment industry and is in the midst of broadening its product range through in-house development and joint ventures.
About Macrovision
Macrovision Corporation develops and markets content copy protection and right management technologies and products to prevent the illicit duplication, reception or use of video and audio programs and computer software. The Company provides its products and services primarily to the consumer multimedia and business software publishers, home video, pay-per-view, cable, satellite and video security markets. Macrovision has its headquarters in Sunnyvale, with subsidiaries in London and Tokyo.
Safe Harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Any statements released by TTR Technologies, Inc., that are forward-looking are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which may affect the Company's business and prospects, including economic, competitive, government, technological and other factors discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. |
