Macrovision, the leading developer and supplier of copy protection, electronic licensing and digital rights management (“DRM”) technologies, announced that it has been awarded Japanese Patent #3,405,980 for a method of copy protecting CD content.

The patent relates to technology used to prevent a PC from recognizing the Red Book audio content when a protected music CD is placed in a PC. More particularly, the patent teaches the manipulation of control data including Table of Contents (TOC) related data to essentially “hide” Red Book audio from the PC. When Red Book audio is “hidden” from the PC, the PC is unable to make audio copies.

Coupled with second session technologies such as the Windows Media® DRM, Macrovision’s CDS solution utilizes this patent and enables worldwide record labels to design and produce “dual session” music CDs that contain both Red Book audio files that play on traditional home and car stereos, and also include “second session” files that can be played and stored on a consumer’s PC and portable devices. Macrovision recently announced a License Agreement for Distribution of the Microsoft® Windows Media® Data Session Toolkit which will facilitate Worldwide Deployment of Secure Music CDs that include both the Macrovision CDS-300 features and the Windows Media DRM.

Masao Kumei, Macrovision’s managing director for Japan and Asia KK added, “The Red Book patent augments our portfolio of copy protection technology patents, enabling us to offer critical solutions for the music and software industries. Japan has been out in front of the world in adopting music CD copy protection, and this patent is an important validation of Macrovision’s leading position in that market.”

Macrovision’s integrated copy control and DRM solutions for music content are designed to protect the music labels’ content while, at the same time, enabling consumers to enjoy a broad entertainment experience on a variety of consumer CD devices and PCs.

For the past 15 years, Macrovision has been the trusted partner in copy protection and rights management for the entertainment industry. Macrovision has worked in partnership with the leading content companies worldwide to develop and deploy technologies that serve the interests of both rights holders and consumers, delivering solutions which provide an optimum balance between effectiveness and playability. Macrovision’s copy protection and rights management technologies have been utilized on over 5 billion CDs, DVDs and VHS cassettes.