Verance announced today that their audio watermark
technology is now available for licensing. This new technology will give HD DVD and Blu-ray players the capability to identify and
restrict the use of watermarked content camcorded in a movie theater or ripped from a prerecorded disc.
Verance Corporation
today announced the immediate availability of its audio watermark technology for licensing by manufacturers of Blu-ray and HD DVD players
and components. The licenses provide access to technical specifications, implementations, and intellectual property rights necessary for
the inclusion of the Verance audio watermark detection within their products on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis...
AACS
LA, LLC (http://www.aacsla.com), the cross-industry consortium that is providing the content protection architecture for use in
next-generation optical media formats (including HD DVD and Blu-ray), identified the Verance audio watermark technology as an element of
its content protection solution and approved the use of Verance watermark on AACS-protected pre-recorded HD DVD and Blu-ray discs in
February 2006. AACS is expected to release final license agreements requiring the inclusion of VCMS/AV detector technology in HD DVD and
Blu-ray players in the coming months.
It will be interesting to see how well Verance's audio watermark technology works. If
its anything like AACS, it will be cracked or bypassed in no time. If you'd like to read more, Verance's entire press release can be
found here.
