Yamaha Announces the Development of MIDI Watermark Technology to Protect the Copyright of Digital Music Files; "MidStamp" Adds a Watermark to MIDI Files.

HAMAMATSU CITY, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 3, 1998--Yamaha Corp., the world's largest manufacturer of musical instruments and the leader in digital music technology, announces the introduction of a revolutionary new software that adds a "watermark" to MIDI files.

Called MidStamp, the new software developed by Yamaha embeds watermark information into an existing MIDI file. The watermark resides inside the MIDI file and cannot be removed by users. (See Note below to learn more about MIDI and MIDI Files.)

"MidStamp is a robust system to protect copyright information. If music publishers and musicians are confident that their works on MIDI files will not be copied, more compositions will be available in MIDI form and this will benefit consumers," said Yamaha Corp. President Kazukiyo Ishimura.

Since a MIDI file is digital data, many in the software industry did not believe watermarking to be possible without destroying the music information. Yamaha, headquartered in Hamamatsu City in Shizuoka, challenged this belief and invented a way of adding a watermark to MIDI Files. By using the MidStamp authoring tool software, users can embed watermark information to protect their intellectual property.

MidStamp consists of visible information and an invisible watermark. MidStamp information is maintained even if the original file is edited in some way or any information such as type of sound or tempo is changed. Embedded information remains untouched even if the copyright meta event, which is text information, is removed. After the inclusion of MidStamp, the file remains 100% compatible with industry standard SMF format ensuring that the file can be played on any MIDI Sequence player application.

Yamaha will start incorporating this MidStamp in the commercial MIDI files to be offered from September 1998 at its Internet on-line store located in the United Kingdom: http://www.yamaha.co.uk/shop/

Yamaha believes that both producers and users of MIDI files will positively receive MidStamp. The revolutionary software acts as a psychological deterrent to the illegal copying and distribution of copyrighted MIDI files. Where a watermarked file is illegally copied, viewing the MidStamp will always reveal the original copyright. Due to the ease with which original MIDI data can be copied, some publishers and musicians have been reluctant to give licenses permitting MIDI files of their songs to be created.

With MidStamp, copyright holders are secure in the knowledge that their intellectual property is appreciated and protected. This means consumers will be able to enjoy a much wider variety of MIDI files, MIDI file creators and distributors don't have to worry about illegal copy and loss of revenue, and publishers can expect more income from MIDI file licensing. Also, it is expected that the lower risk of illegal copies will lead to much greater MIDI file circulation, higher sales and lower unit prices.

Following the release of watermarked MIDI files, Yamaha plans to offer the "MidStamp viewer" function in some of its MIDI player software applications so that users can recognize if the file has been modified.

Note: MIDI, Musical Instrument Digital Interface, has been widely used by electronic musical instruments and personal computers since 1983. Standard MIDI File, often referred as SMF or MIDI File, is an industry standard that describes the music performance information in digital data. The MIDI file can be compared to the sheet music. While sheet music keeps the music information in analog on paper, the MIDI file carries the music information in digital and electronic form.

MIDI files are widely used by professional and amateur musicians. Also, many commercial MIDI files have been sold for entertainment, practice and Karaoke applications. As is the nature of digital data, a MIDI file can be duplicated without any quality degradation. Unfortunately there are illegally copied MIDI files available on the Internet and through other channels.

    CONTACT:  Yamaha Corp.
               Kyoko Fujii
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               Technical information:
               Richie Hasegawa
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