"..With the release of Microsoft Corp.'s long-awaited Windows 2000 operating system finally imminent, the company has awarded Technicolor a three-year manufacturing and technology contract. As part of the agreement, Microsoft will take advantage of Technicolor's proprietary edge-to-edge holographic anti-piracy technology.

Rather than technologically preventing unauthorized copying of the material on a disc, the edge-to-edge holographic technology provides a hard-to-duplicate physical feature that will easily distinguish genuine products from bootlegged or "pirated" copies.

According to Faulkner, a special machine is added to the manufacturing process to embed a holographic image across the entire CD or DVD. "It doesn't affect the capacity of the disc, or the quality," he said. "But if you try to remove the hologram image, you'll ruin the disc. It's unique in that it becomes part of the disc. If you try to tamper with it, it will affect playability. More importantly, the hologaphic image is very apparent. People who are receiving the product will be able to quite easily recognize that it's a genuine product if it has the image on it.".."