Coalition Developing DVD Watermark DVD & DeCSS5/5/2001; 9:51:19 PM 'An alliance of seven technology companies has developed a digital watermark technology that it says could be available on DVDs as early as September. 'The Video Watermarking Group (VWM) is a combined venture of Hitachi (HIT, info), NEC (NIPNY, info), Pioneer (PIO, info), Sony (SNE, info), Digimarc (DMRC, info), Macrovision (MVSN, info), and Philips (PHG, info). The companies have come together after months of negotiations to combine their technologies and produce a digital watermark that will be embedded in original DVDs, says John Fread, director of public relations for Digimarc. 'Detector circuits in future DVD recorders and playback machines will read the watermark, says Miz Nakajima, spokesperson for Digimarc. The technology does not work with today's DVD players.'It won't work in today's players... of which millions exist... and it's far too late in the DVD cycle to just suddenly mandate a switchover and expect everyone to upgrade. Exactly what good is this supposed to do?Also see Wes' remarks, w/ my reply.