DRM Interoperability Consortium Invites Steve Jobs to Join

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Coral Consortium Points Out DRM Interoperability Alternative

12th February 2007

The Coral Consortium today announced that it had posted a letter to Steve Jobs on its website, www.coral-interop.org, in response to his letter, "Thoughts On Music", dated February 6, 2007 that asked the music industry to consider abandoning the use of DRM technology. The letter points out to Mr. Jobs that there is an additional alternative to the three described in his letter, namely DRM Interoperability. The Coral letter suggests to Mr. Jobs that the best way to achieve a truly consumer-friendly interoperable digital distribution marketplace that balances consumer needs with those of the content industry and in which DRM itself it virtually invisible to the consumer, is for Apple, Inc. and other key players to join with the existing members of the Coral Consortium in their efforts to deploy the DRM interoperability solution developed by the Coral participants.

About The Coral Consortium

Founded on October 4, 2004 as a cross-industry group to promote interoperability between DRM technologies used in the consumer media market, Coral Consortium's founding members are HP, Intertrust Technologies Corporation, Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Panasonic (Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Sony Corporation, and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. In addition to its founders, Coral Consortium also includes among its promoter members, IFPI, NBC Universal, Inc., and LG Electronics, Inc.

The Coral Consortium seeks to ensure interoperability so that today's digital music and video can be easily accessed and enjoyed, regardless of the service provider or the device. While recent innovations in digital media distribution provide consumers with new channels to acquire music and video, proprietary differences still exist in underlying DRM or content protection technology. At times, these technologies conflict and prevent consumers from playing content packaged and distributed using one DRM technology on a device that supports a different DRM technology. The Consortium's focus is a new technology layer that will allow existing DRM solutions to co-exist, thereby promoting content and devices that play well together. More information about the Coral Consortium, including a complete list of its current membership, may be found at www.coral-interop.org.

For further information please contact
Leigh Anne Varney
Varney Business Communication
+1.415.387.7250
la@varneybusiness.com.