Firm cashes in on copyrights

Online Monitoring Services, a company that ferrets out copyright infringements on the Internet, is stepping up its efforts to capitalize on the rising tide of publishers seeking to protect their copyrighted products on the Internet.

The firm tomorrow will announce that it is changing its name and relaunching its site. The move will come just a day after the House cleared the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The bill is now headed to President Clinton, who is expected to sign it into law.

The company now will be called Cyveillance. The firm said that the music industry trade group the Recording Industry Association of America is one of its clients. RIAA is now involved in a fight against a multimedia firm that RIAA claims is not paying a royalty that is due to the association.

Cyveillance's other clients include the Motion Picture Association of America, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Time Incorporated-New Media, and the Software Publishers Association, among others.

The company said it hopes the name change will better position Cyveillance to stake its claim in this area of the Internet market, which company executives predict will be a $1 billion industry.

"Since we received venture capital in May, we have been revamping our product offering, revamping our strategy, and revamping our message," said Christopher Young, Cyveillance president and chief operating officer.

The company said it received $3.1 million in capital from several venture firms including Lazard Technology Partners and Capital Investors.

Cyveillance offers four core products that focus on helping customers identify and take action against infringements in the areas of e-commerce, copyright, and trademarks.

Cyveillance has developed proprietary technology that scours the Internet to help companies protect their trademarks and create new revenue streams on the Internet.

According to Cyveillance, its patent-pending technology can locate illegal e-commerce activity, misuse of copyrighted material and trademarks, damaging information, and pornography that negatively impacts companies' images or their bottom lines.

The company claims that more than 80 percent of Fortune 1,000 companies are victims of copyright and trademark misuse on the Internet.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said Brandy Thomas, chairman and chief executive of Cyveillance. "Our technology can download and search more than 1 million pages a day on the Internet and prioritize sites based on the potential business impact to our clients. This is the first real solution to a seemingly unmanageable problem."