MUMBAI: Launching an aggressive new effort to combat piracy, The Walt Disney Studios will utilize state-of-the-art encryption technology from Cinea, a subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories, for 2005 DVD awards screeners.

The agreement, which marks a major milestone in the search for an industry-wide solution to deter movie piracy, was announced today by Dick Cook, chairman, The Walt Disney Studios; Jeff Miller, President, worldwide post production and operations; and Bill Jasper, president and chief executive officer, Dolby Laboratories.

Piracy is one of the biggest threats to the cinema industry, resulting in lost jobs and lost revenues. To combat piracy, Cinea developed its innovative solution, which provides copy protection and piracy tracking for DVDs. Cinea's solution includes the S-VIEW(TM) DVD player and encryption technology to safeguard content. The S-VIEW DVD player offers the highest-quality picture and sound. It also plays standard DVDs, states an official release.

In collaboration with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Cinea has distributed the SV300 model of its S-VIEW DVD player to nearly 12,000 of the collective voting members. Recipients of the Cinea S-VIEW players simply need to install the player as part of their home entertainment system, as they would install a regular DVD player, and make a phone call or go online to register with Cinea, the release adds.

Cinea encrypts each disc with a code unique to each member. The Cinea disc delivered to each member will play only on the Cinea S-VIEW DVD player registered by that member. A Cinea encrypted disc cannot be viewed on any other DVD player or computer.