| Firsty links up with Icontact in major digital watermarking partnership |
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The Firsty Group has partnered with Netherlands-based Icontact for the right to offer BooXtream® — Icontact's award-winning digital watermarking technology — in the UK.
Under this agreement, UK publishers who want this technology, but lack the resources to integrate the BooXtream® API in-house, will be directed to Firsty. Digital watermarking is integral to the eBook conversion and direct-to-consumer (D2C) eCommerce website services that Firsty offers UK publishers.
| What is BooXtream®? |
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Since 2010, Icontact has been providing BooXtream® watermarking and personalisation solutions to publishers, including some of the world's top publishers. With every ePub file order fulfilment, BooXtream® encodes data (customer name, email address and order-id) as a series of redundant digital watermarks and adds visible, personalised information for the end user into the file. These advanced watermarking and personalisation features mean that every ePub file sold is unique and traceable. Because customers know the files can contain their name or customer number, the risk of illegal distribution is very low. And because no 'real' DRM is used, the customer can read the eBook on every device he or she owns.
Two new BooXtream® features are being released this summer:
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ePub3 support: BooXtream® will support basic ePub3 eBooks, including those with vertical Japanese text. Because this means that the ePub3 format will be adopted by many Asian countries, ePub will finally become a real worldwide standard |
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Kindle Mobi support: all API users will be able to opt for Mobi output instead of ePub output (although ePub will remain the input format). As all Kindle users can load their readers with non-DRM Mobi files (independent of Amazon) using the standard Send-to-Kindle functions, BooXtream® users will be able to reach another huge market. |
A partnership that will benefit UK publishers
For Firsty, the agreement with Icontact is seen as the prelude to a long-term and rewarding partnership that could add considerably to the services we offer UK publishers. Firsty CEO, Darin Brockman, said: "I am excited to find a partner as forward thinking as Icontact. Our two companies joining forces will add real value to publishers' digital strategies. I'm looking forward to providing a seamless D2C offering without the limitations inherent in traditional DRM."
Huub van de Pol, Icontact's MD, expressed his delight at identifying a UK partner with the expertise to support the introduction of their BooXtream® technology into the UK publishing industry. He said: "Firsty services perfectly complement our enterprise solutions. Since they have the expertise, experience and resources to provide outstanding digital publishing services for UK publishers, we are proud to announce that the Firsty Group is our preferred reseller in the UK." |
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Notes for editors
This story represents a major change in the way
that eBooks will soon be marketed to Kindle
devices
For further information,
please contact:
Darin Brockman – darin.brockman@firstygroup.com
Kay Sayce – kay.sayce@firstygroup.com
01635 581185
Background on the Firsty Group
The Firsty Group is one of the UK's leading
specialists in digital services for publishers.
We have built strong, creative relationships with
many groups in the industry, from publishing
media and associations to literary agencies,
small-to-medium publishers and some of the
world's top publishing houses.
All our work is based on working in partnership
to create quality eBooks and book apps and to
provide a range of affordable eCommerce
direct-to-consumer (D2C) solutions for promoting,
selling and distributing books, forging strong
relationships with readers and building brand
awareness.
We also run an eBookstore, FirstyFish, designed
to ensure security and ease-of-use for publishers
and to encourage readers to browse through it,
interact with it and come back for more. The site
conforms to BIC standards for bibliographic data
and subject categorisation.
And we run a news service via our FirstyNews
website, which provides commentary on trends in
digital publishing and brings all the latest
information on ePublishing into one place –
categorised, tagged and sourced from the best
resources on the web. |
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