e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[Tinroad]

MUST READ FOR OWNERS OF EDIG IN FORTUNE...
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?board=EDIG&read=689520

So what has MTV been doing while all this wrangling has been going on? Its first move was to get its hands on the music. A San Jose technology company called RioPort--in which MTV (and Microsoft) are investors--quietly signed deals with all the major labels to license and sell their music. RioPort then made the music available to MTV, a division of Viacom. Why were the record companies willing to give their music to RioPort and MTV? Stunningly, they did so in part because they felt it would help keep Congress at bay. "The MTV deal is just another way to get content out, because there's this threat of compulsory licensing hanging over the industry," says Andreas Schmidt, president of Bertelsmann's e-commerce group.

To keep the record companies happy, RioPort has developed a system that allows its music to be downloaded onto any "secure" portable player--but prevents it from being transferred to a friend's player. And it has figured out ways to accept music in a variety of technologies--the record companies all have their preferred, often incompatible formats--yet make those different formats almost indistinguishable to the consumer.


Be sure to read all three pages...

http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=202774

E.DIGITAL AND RIOPORT, INC. COLLABORATE TO DEVELOP SEAMLESS, SECURE INTERNET MUSIC DELIVERY SYSTEM

SAN DIEGO, CA - January 6, 2000 - e.Digital Corporation (OTC: EDIG) today announced an agreement with RioPort, Inc., a pioneer in the digital audio download market, to integrate RioPort's secure digital audio platform with e.Digital's Internet music player design. As a result, e.Digital will be able to provide portable hardware manufacturers with a secure, licensable solution for seamlessly delivering digital audio content to consumers.

Atul Anandpura, vice president of research & development at e.Digital, said, "While e.Digital's player can play multiple codecs seamlessly and support major Digital Rights Management schemes, e.Digital wanted to partner with a company that can provide a complete, integrated solution for enabling the end user to easily download secure digital audio content to the player without encountering incompatibility issues. e.Digital's design will support the RioPort Audio Manager jukebox software to allow seamless delivery of secure digital audio content to the portable player."

RioPort will provide compatibility to e.Digital's designs through its RioPort Audio Manager software and other related software tools including the RioPort Media Device Manager API (R)MDM, allowing consumers to easily transport digital audio content from the Internet directly to portable devices that use the e.Digital design.

Fred Falk, president and CEO of e.Digital, added, "This is an appealing option for licensees because it makes it easier for end users to locate and download a wide variety of secure popular audio content from RioPort's network of digital audio partners, in one easy step. The e.Digital music player design features Lucent's ePAC music compression and is forward-compatible with several music formats, which will allow consumers easy access to content today and in the future as new compression schemes are adopted. This design's flexibility will be a big benefit to both hardware licensees and to end users."

Anthony Schaller, chief technology officer at RioPort, stated, "Our relationship with e.Digital extends our capabilities to provide a variety of hardware manufacturers with our integrated RioPort platform. This partnership will result in an easier, seamless digital audio experience for consumers, which will help expand the digital audio market as a whole."

About RioPort

RioPort, Inc. is redefining digital audio by delivering an integrated, secure platform for acquiring, managing and experiencing music and spoken audio programming from the Internet. A pioneer in the digital audio market, RioPort partners with companies to provide them with an easy-to-use platform that includes access to a wide range of digital audio content, customizable software solutions and device design services. For consumers, RioPort provides easy access to a variety of popular and innovative music and word programming through its RioPort.com digital audio getaway site. In addition, RioPort markets the RioPort Audio Manager, an easy-to-use jukebox application for the acquisition, management and playback of digital audio content from the desktop or RioPort compatible portable appliances, which the company licenses to third parties. RioPort also provides content companies with production services, including encoding and secure packaging, allowing them to easily get their content into the hands of digital audio enthusiasts. RioPort's investment partners include Vulcan Ventures, Oak Investment Partners, MTV Networks Online and S3, Inc. RioPort's Web site is at www.rioport.com.

About e.Digital

e.Digital Corporation offers an engineering partnership for the world's leading electronics companies to link portable digital devices to PCs and the Internet. Engineering services range from the licensing of e.Digital's patented MicroOSTM file management system to custom software and hardware development and manufacturing services. For more information on the company, visit www.edig.com.


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Safe Harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to future performance, technology and product development that may impact on future results and the future viability of the company. Actual results could be affected or differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of risk factors such as: future products and results; technological shifts; potential technical difficulties that could delay new products; competition; general economic conditions in the markets in which the company operates; the ability of the company, its customers, and suppliers to become Year 2000 compliant; pricing pressures; and the uncertainty of market acceptance of new products by OEM's and end-user customers.

Note to Editors: e.Digital and MicroOS are trademarks of e.Digital Corporation. Lucent and ePAC are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lucent Technologies. SanDisk and CompactFlash are trademarks or registered trademarks of SanDisk Corporation. All other product, company, or service names are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACTS:

e.Digital Corporation
Robert Putnam or Wendy Ravenel
[phone]

http://www.edig.com/news/releases/pr010600a.html


http://www.edig.com/news/releases/pr010600a.html