OverDrive Media Vending provides total merchant services with DRM

 

CLEVELAND, OH – March 19, 2002 – OverDrive, Inc., (www.overdrive.com) a world leader in eBook, DRM and media marketplace solutions, today introduced Digital Kiosk, an “all-in-one” online vending machine for the sale of protected digital content.  OverDrive supplies complete merchant account services and Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology with each ready-made Digital Kiosk enabling publishers and retailers to protect and sell eBooks, audio books, music and digital media over the Web.

Digital Kiosks provide a complete retail system with catalog, shopping cart, real-time credit card processing, secure hosting and 24/7 technical support. Anyone can open a Digital Kiosk to merchandise, protect, and sell eBooks, newsletters, reports, journals, music, video and audio book titles using DRM technologies from Microsoft Corporation and Adobe Systems. Digital Kiosk shoppers can instantly purchase and download products to personal computers, laptops, Pocket PCs and portable media players including over 350 million Windows Media Players distributed worldwide.

“Now any publisher can sell eBook and digital audio book products directly from their own website,” stated Steve Potash, OverDrive CEO.  “The one-time setup fee for a fully-featured Digital Kiosk is less than $5,000 including DRM and are ready to generate revenue immediately,” according to Potash.  “Digital Kiosks also include a retail account with OverDrive Content Reserve (www.contentreserve.com) providing access to an extensive inventory of resalable premium content from over 300 publishers including HarperCollins, Random House and McGraw-Hill,” he added.

Digital Kiosks feature a “Direct Buy Link” where each product has its own unique web address (URL) so publishers, agents and authors can promote product sales by placing a Direct Buy Link to a specific title in web pages, email, print ads and materials.  OverDrive will launch a “To Protect and To Sell” marketing campaign at the upcoming BookExpo America trade show in NYC aimed at demonstrating to publishers, associations, educational and training institutions how a Digital Kiosk can profit their business.

Other features of Digital Kiosk include:

  • Attractive, professionally designed Kiosk templates (skins) branded with company name and logo.
  • Support for international use including processing of global currencies.
  • Flexible merchandising and promotions for featured titles.
  • Web-based administration and management of Digital Kiosk store from a PC connected to the Internet.
  • Real-time merchant credit card services for MasterCard, VISA and American Express.
  • DRM services for suppliers to manage licensing rights and protecting content.

“OverDrive Digital Kiosks are affordable and complete solutions for publishers and retailers who seek to protect and sell digital content from their websites,” said Claudia Weissman, OverDrive’s Director of Business Development.  “They eliminate all the programming, integration of various services, secure hosting, and fulfillment burdens otherwise required to develop a solution for the sale of DRM content,” Weissman added.  Digital Kiosks represent the result of OverDrive’s global success in media marketplace solutions including retail storefronts for divisions of WHSmith of London, Vivendi Universal of Paris, and Follett Corporation in the US.

 

About OverDrive, Inc.

OverDrive, Inc. (www.overdrive.com) is a leading provider of technology and services enabling the secure management and distribution of digital content over global networks. As a strategic partner with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Adobe Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE), OverDrive delivers proven technology for trusted fulfillment and resale of premium content from the world’s leading media companies.  As a Principal Member of the Open eBook Forum (OeBF), OverDrive is strategically focused on driving specifications and standards for the emerging and rapidly evolving electronic publishing industry.  The company was founded in 1986, and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

Contact:

Jennifer A. Jackson, OverDrive, Inc., (216) 573-6886 ext. 207, jjackson@overdrive.com

 

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