RICHARDSON, Texas, Jan. 27, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Immediatek (OTCBB:ITEK), the leader in secure CD burning technology for music legally downloaded and burned to CD-R from the Internet, announced today that it has struck a new definitive agreement to continue to offer SunnComm's core technology within its NetBurn Secure(tm) product line through a multi-year agreement. At the same time, company officials also announced plans to move forward with the implementation of secure disc burning into popular media players via a "plug-in" architecture.
SunnComm Technologies (Pink Sheets:STEH), located in Phoenix, AZ, a leader in developing copy control solutions for audio CDs and DVDs, has recently staked its claim in the U.S. market when Arista, a subsidiary label of media giant BMG, released a SunnComm-protected CD by R&B artist Anthony Hamilton. According to SoundScan figures, first-week sales figures of the Hamilton disc dropped only 23% compared with the typical first-week drop of 40-60% of discs which do not include the copy management technology. (The Washington Post, Oct 29, 2003)
NetBurn Secure is a revolutionary "one-click CD download and burn" product that helps record labels, artists, and content providers curb Internet piracy and protect their music and revenues. Immediatek's NetBurn Secure offers the same level of copy control on home-burned CDs that SunnComm's MediaMax(tm) technology offers on manufactured discs. NetBurn Secure(tm) is the only solution of its kind available, and fills a void left by common DRM (digital rights management) technology.
"DRM technology falls short when it comes to burning CDs," says Zach Bair, CEO & Chairman of Immediatek. "Popular DRM formats allow discs to be burned, but leave the content in an unprotected format as a result of this process which means the consumer can "rip" the audio off of the freshly-burned disc and upload it to file-sharing networks such as Kazaa and LimeWire. NetBurn Secure helps to prevent this ripping from taking place, and aids in plugging a gaping hole that has been largely ignored by the industry but is the source of a large amount of unauthorized copying and distribution of music."
"Our license using the SunnComm technology platform provides us with the flexibility to continue to develop our solutions in the manner which works best both for consumers and our clients," said Bair. "Immediatek, along with SunnComm and their new marketing arm Quiet Tiger (OTCBB:QTIG), will continue to pursue client relationships which will protect both the manufactured CD products as well as electronic media distributed via the Internet."
Peter H. Jacobs, president of SunnComm, added, "This agreement with Immediatek will help to penetrate the up-and-coming digital distribution market segment presenting a significant revenue opportunity for the shareholders of both Immediatek and SunnComm."
Immediatek, in a related move designed to strengthen its position and product line regarding secure content delivery, recently acquired assets of Incanta, Inc. that included the Incanta Media Player and PerimeterNet, a patent-pending Secure Content Distribution Network (CDN). According to Bair, Immediatek is integrating the NetBurn Secure component into the Incanta player, and for the first time content owners will be able to have their digital files distributed so that "burns" (or copies) to CD-R media must be "secure." Immediatek is deploying the secure burn component as a plug-in so that it may be used with other popular media players such as Microsoft's (Nasdaq:MSFT) Windows Media.
"We believe that the Incanta system, which is a robust and scalable 'content-provider-in-a-box,' when combined with our NetBurn Secure technology, will be the world's first and only true end-to-end secure content delivery system."
Terms of the SunnComm deal with Immediatek were not disclosed. Immediatek's NetBurn product line is available for licensing through the company, and is also available for independent artists at no cost through Immediatek's NetBurn Portal System. Additionally, the company is deploying NetBurn Station music burning kiosks, also available for license and purchase.
For more information regarding Immediatek and it's NetBurn Secure product line, visit the company' website at http://www.immediatek.com.
Musicians and independent artists should visit http://www.netburncd.com for information on the NetBurn Portal System.
For more information about SunnComm, visit the company's website at http://www.sunncomm.com.
About Immediatek
Immediatek, Inc. is the leader in secure disc burning and media delivery technology, offering its patent-pending "one-click" NetBurn(tm) and NetBurn Secure solutions to record labels, content providers and artists. NetBurn Secure uses proprietary military-grade DES encryption techniques, and combines components from SunnComm, Inc. and Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) to deliver a secure burn solution. Immediatek is helping to curb Internet piracy by offering legal downloading and burning options. For more information visit the company website at http://www.immediatek.com.
About SunnComm
SunnComm Technologies Inc. became the first company to commercially release a content-protected audio CD utilizing an early version of the Windows Media Data Session Toolkit. It is a leader in digital content enhancement and security technology for optical media with its MediaMax M4 suite of products. SunnComm's music-management technology was commercially released by Music City Records in 2001 and became America's first copy-protected audio CD. SunnComm's MediaMax M4 suite of Digital Content Enhancement technologies are built using Microsoft Windows Media 9 Series but operates on both Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) and Windows-based systems. For more information, please visit the company's Web site at: http://www.sunncomm.com. MediaMax Digital Content Cloaking Technology, M4, DC2, MusicMail/TuneShare and SunnComm are registered and/or trademarks of SunnComm Technologies Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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