Reciprocal and Microsoft Celebrate 1 Million Secure Windows Media Transactions

NEW YORK, June 12, 2000 — Reciprocal Inc., the global leader in digital rights management (DRM) transaction services, and Microsoft Corp. today celebrated an important milestone as Reciprocal became the first clearing service to process 1 million DRM transactions using the Microsoft® Windows Media™
Rights Manager.

These transactions represent the digital distribution of content from top artists such as Santana, Whitney Houston, Bob Dylan and The Hot Boys. This significant achievement highlights Reciprocal’s industry leadership and underscores the growing adoption of the digital distribution of content via the Internet. This also demonstrates the broad success of the Windows Media Format with major content providers and consumers.

“Working with great technology partners like Microsoft has been the key to Reciprocal’s leadership in DRM services,”
said John Schwarz, resident and CEO of Reciprocal.
“We are expanding quickly into new countries and vertical markets — such as software, health care, film and video — as well as broadening our reach in the publishing space. As the industry’s leading DRM clearing service to support multiple DRM technologies, this 1 million benchmark with Windows Media is an important milestone for the company and validation for the digital distribution industry and its market potential.”

The Microsoft Windows Media Rights Manager is an end-to-end DRM system within Windows Media that offers content providers and retailers a flexible platform for the secure distribution of digital media files. Major recording labels such as EMI, BMG Entertainment, Sony Music and Warner Music are delivering music over the Internet today in the secure Windows Media Format.

“Digital rights management is the fundamental enabler for digital media e-commerce,”
said Will Poole, vice president of the Digital Media Division at Microsoft.
“Today’s milestone punctuates how mature and widely adopted Windows Media Rights Manager is today, and how important Reciprocal is as an industry partner in offering the industry a proven infrastructure for handling massive DRM transactions.”

Reciprocal currently has relationships with more than 50 percent of the music industry, including Sony Music, BMG Entertainment and Zomba Records. In addition, in less than one year, Reciprocal has formed key strategic alliances with leading companies in the publishing space such as Reuters, Aberdeen and Houghton Mifflin.

About Reciprocal

Reciprocal, the global leader in digital rights management transaction services, provides comprehensive, easy-to-implement e-commerce clearing services and back-office solutions for the music, publishing, software, film, entertainment and other digital content industries. Reciprocal offers content owners a true outsourced DRM solution that allows them to realize new revenue streams while efficiently protecting their online digital assets.

The Reciprocal™
Digital Clearing Service leverages leading DRM technology from Microsoft, InterTrust Technologies Corp., IBM Corp., ContentGuard, Adobe Systems Inc. and Preview Systems Inc., allowing companies to choose the solution that best fits their business needs. Reciprocal Digital Clearing Service is secure, flexible and capable of handling millions of transactions per day. Leading content companies such as Sony Music Entertainment, BMG Entertainment, Houghton Mifflin, Reuters, Aberdeen Group and TVT Records have selected Reciprocal as their digital rights management services provider. Privately held, Reciprocal maintains offices in New York City, Buffalo, N.Y., and Research Triangle Park, N.C.

About Windows Media

Windows Media is the leading digital media platform, providing unmatched audio and video quality to consumers, content providers, solution providers, software developers and corporations. Windows Media offers the industry’s only integrated rights management solution and the most scalable and reliable streaming technology tested by independent labs. Windows Media Technologies includes Windows Media Player for consumers, Windows Media Services for servers, Windows Media Tools for content creation and the Windows Media Software Development Kit (SDK) for software developers. Windows Media Player, available in 24 languages, is the fastest-growing media player. For more information about Windows Media, visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/ .

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

Microsoft and Windows Media are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

Reciprocal is a trademark of Reciprocal Inc. in the United States and other countries.

2000 Reciprocal Inc. All rights reserved.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft home page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. If you are interested in more information on Reciprocal, please visit its Web site at http://www.reciprocal.com/ .

Related Posts