New Name 
SoftLock.com’s name change reflects the company’s increased focus on helping content publishers maximize the sale of rights-protected digital content. Digital Goods offers publishers a blend of DRM technology, interactive marketing services, and strategic advice. 

According to the company, the Digital Goods symbol—a sphere traveling into expanding concentric rings—portrays the viral marketing effects of the company’s Passa-long technology, a patented system that turns friend-to-friend content sharing into a sales channel. SoftLock.com was an early entrant in the DRM arena, and its technology protects digital content through a patented encryption method while managing the permissions and use of copyrighted material. Over the past 6 months, SoftLock.com has intensified its focus on the online marketing of secure digital content. 

Jonathan Schull, founder and chief scientist at Digital Goods, said: “SoftLock made digital products sellable; Digital Goods makes them sell. From day one, Digital Goods will lead the industry in digital content marketing. In response to publisher requests, we have developed a suite of digital content marketing tools that give us a variety of solutions to help content publishers place rightsprotected content at consumer touch points.” 
 

DRM Version 3.0 
According to the company, version 3.0 of its DRM service offers digital content providers a highly scalable solution for the distribution of secure digital content. The widespread use of XML as a core technology in version 3.0 allows content providers to integrate their business and e-commerce services with Digital Goods’ content hosting, security, and marketing services. 

Dynamic Content Locking, a key feature of version 3.0, enables digital content to be packaged, secured, and distributed in real time and allows consumers to order digital documents that are customized to their interests, packaged on the fly, and delivered within seconds. According to the announcement, this technology lets content providers focus on maintaining their content database rather than on the production and distribution of the final packaged product. 

Version 3.0 also allows users to conduct digital content marketing (DCM) through integration points that deliver content offers to consumers through affiliate retailers, search engines, registration, and contextual mapping. DCM provides the tools to market, distribute, and sell premium digital content securely, through a network of technology, services, and partners. 

In addition, version 3.0 offers enhanced Passalong technology. Passalong encourages sharing among colleagues and friends while the content’s copyright security wrapper remains intact.According to the announcement, content publishers encourage the use of Passalong because it results in additional sales while reducing customer acquisition costs. 
 

Digital Content Marketing Initiative 
Digital Goods’ new digital content marketing initiative provides a full suite of interactive marketing tools that are fully integrated with the company’s DRM technologies. The suite includes the following: 

• The Passalong viral marketing system 
  
  
• An affiliate retailer network with thousands of online partners. Digital Goods is working closely with Be Free, Inc. to develop the first online affiliate network to sell digital content with immediate and secure downloads. 
  
  
• A customized search engine registration capability that leverages major search engine portals. According to the company, secure documents are automatically registered with each of the major search engines in a manner that optimizes their placement and maximizes sales. 
  
  
• Contextual mapping of product offers. SoftLock embeds offers for specific relevant content in news feeds and other Web site content. 
  
  
• Customized, targeted e-mail campaigns to help content publishers build personalized relationships with their customers 

“Reciprocal is helping to bring more and more publishers to the online distribution market,” said John Schwarz, Reciprocal’s president and CEO. “Our part-nership with Digital Goods means that Reciprocal’s customers can now take immediate advantage of one of the most sophisticated viral marketing networks available and remain comfortable about their copyright obligations.” 

Source: Digital Goods, Maynard, MA, 978/461-5940; http://www.digitalgoods.com.