Managing Rights Management

Digimarc Spins Off ID Business

Watermarking vendor Digimarc has announced that it is selling its ID Systems business to L-1 Identity Solutions Inc. The sale leaves Digimarc free to focus its resources on its digital watermarking and licensing business.

“This relationship comes at a particularly opportune time for Digimarc, as we are experiencing an inflection point in adoption and revenue growth for digital watermarking,” said Davis [Bruce Davis, Digimarc Chairman and CEO]. “Our technology is beginning to permeate the full range of media content, from banknotes and secure credentials to television, movies, music, video games, digital images, advertisements, packaging, and industrial goods. This transaction represents a great step forward for our shareholders, employees, and customers. As we combine our ID Systems assets with global leader L-1 to form a more comprehensive offering responsive to our customers’ evolving needs, we are also redoubling our focus on the realization of our founding vision to making digital watermarking a standard feature in all media content. This is a very exciting moment in our history.”

Seems like a wise move.

Switzerland Warns File Trackers

InfoWorld reports that the Swiss government has warned Logistep, a company that tracks file sharers, that its tactics may be illegal under Swiss law. Identifying file sharers is part of global antipriracy efforts that in the view of some compromises the privacy of individuals.

Logistep, which supplies information on suspected file sharers to law firms around the world for use in copyright violation cases, has until Feb. 9 to respond to the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), said Marc Schaefer, the agency's legal advisor.

Under Swiss law, the identity of a subscriber to an ISP can only be revealed during the course of a criminal case, not a civil one, Schaefer said. The IP address of a computer controlled by the subscriber is considered "personal" information.

Identity Rights Management

Integration Developer News has a good article by Adarbad Master on identity and identity rights management. (Alert: many many acronyms but useful to interested parties nonetheless.)  Snippets: