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Macrovision Signs Copy Protection Agreement with Havas Interactive, Inc.

SafeDisc Technology to be Applied to Havas' Interactive Games and Entertainment Software PC CD-ROM Titles

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 1999-- Macrovision Corporation, the world leader in intellectual property rights protection, announced today that Havas Interactive, Inc. is now licensed to apply Macrovision's SafeDisc PC CD-ROM copy protection technology to its brand products for worldwide distribution.

"Havas Interactive is the leader in educational, entertainment and productivity software," said Dave Grenewetzki, President of Sierra. "We strongly believe that our property should be protected. With the rapid growth of all three markets, Macrovision's SafeDisc copy protection technology will allow us to protect a wide array of our famous brand name products, developed by our studios, from unauthorized replication."

"We are pleased that Havas Interactive, a major publisher of educational, entertainment and productivity software, has taken steps to implement our global copy protection solution," said Brian Dunn, Sr. Vice President of Computer Software Copy Protection at Macrovision Corporation. "Educational software, just like game software, falls victim to casual copying. Our goal is to help publishers protect their products, and increase their revenue."

Packaged goods counterfeiting of entertainment software last year was estimated by the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) to be over US$3 billion worldwide for the software gaming industry alone. A recent poll conducted by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) estimated software piracy revenue losses for all software at $2.9 billion in the U.S. and $11 billion globally.

The SafeDisc technology is currently licensed to over 75 replicators worldwide, and is a software-based solution that does not require any changes to standard PC CD-ROM hardware. It is comprised of both an authenticating digital signature embedded on the disc, as well as a multi-layered encrypted wrapper that secures the CD-ROM content.

The digital signature, which cannot be copied by CD recorders, is added to each original disc during the mastering/replication process. When a user inserts an original disc in a CD-ROM drive, the authentication software reads the digital signature, allowing the program to be decrypted and run normally. If an unauthorized copy is loaded, the authentication software will not be able to find the digital signature, and the copy will not run.

The technology is licensed directly to interactive software publishers, and to mastering and replication facilities who are able to offer the technology to their software publishing clients.

SafeDisc represents Macrovision's first copy protection product for the interactive software market. Macrovision is best known for its videocassette copy protection technology, which has been applied to over two billion videocassettes over the past decade. SafeDisc is licensed to most of the leading interactive software companies including Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Eidos, Hasbro, and GT Interactive.

About Havas Interactive, Inc.

Havas Interactive is one of the world's largest publishers of education, entertainment and home productivity software. Its divisions, Blizzard Entertainment, Knowledge Adventure, and Sierra On-Line, Inc. are famous for releasing critically acclaimed and award-winning titles.

The combined resources of these three companies make Havas Interactive one of the largest PC consumer software groups in the world, and a leader in entertainment and educational software. Havas is also Europe's number one publisher of reference works and schoolbooks, and France's leader in trade press. Havas has operations in the U.S. and in Europe, and is a subsidiary of the French publishing house Havas, which is part of Vivendi Communications.

About Macrovision

Macrovision Corporation develops and markets content copy protection and rights management technologies and products to prevent the illicit duplication, reception or use of video and audio programs and computer software. The company provides its products and services primarily to the home video, pay-per-view, cable, satellite, video security, consumer multimedia and application software markets.

Macrovision has its headquarters in Sunnyvale, with subsidiaries in London and Tokyo.

All statements contained herein, as well as oral statements that may be made by the Company or by officers, directors or employees of the Company acting on the Company's behalf, that are not statements of historical fact, constitute "forward-looking statements" and are made pursuant to the Safe-Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties are outlined in Macrovision's Annual Report on Form 10-KSB for 1998 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 1999, both as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These factors may not constitute all factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in any forward-looking statement. The Company is not obligated to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.

Note to Editors: Additional background information on Macrovision Corporation can be obtained from our Web site at www.macrovision.com.



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