EVERPLAY™ Standard to be Administered by OSTA

OSTA to Manage EVERPLAY Specification for Interchange of Digital Photos, Video and Related Audio Files Across a Broad Range of CE Devices

Campbell, CA.  Feb. 22, 2007 – Eastman Kodak, FUJIFILM Corporation and Konica Minolta Photo Imaging Inc., founders and owners of the EVERPLAY specification, today announced an agreement with the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA) to transfer ongoing administration and future development of the EVERPLAY image interoperability specification to OSTA.  The EVERPLAY specification is designed to ensure compatibility of digital photos and videos across a broad range of consumer products for future generations.

When the EVERPLAY specification was finalized in February 2006, Kodak, Fujifilm and Konica Minolta initiated a royalty-free license program and urged widespread adoption by companies throughout the consumer digital imaging industry, as well as the consumer electronics, software, photo and image processing industries.  
“The EVERPLAY founders agree that it is time to transfer the standard to an established trade association to manage ongoing administration and engage a more open standards process to further promote its adoption,” said Frank M. Ranalletti, Director, Technology Initiatives, Digital & Film Imaging Systems, for Eastman Kodak.  “OSTA has a long history of creating and promoting widely adopted compatibility specifications including the MultiPlay specification for CDs and DVDs and the Universal Disk Format (UDF) file system.  The EVERPLAY standard is based on OSTA’s MPV™ (MusicPhotoVideo) core technology for exchanging and playing collections of digital music, photos, and videos among consumer electronics devices, various storage media and across the Internet. As a result, we felt that OSTA was best suited for the task.”
“We are very pleased that OSTA has been selected to advance the EVERPLAY specification and promote its adoption as an international standard,” said David Bunzel, OSTA president. “It offers excellent interoperability benefits to the imaging industry, and has great potential beyond imaging to facilitate storage, search, exchange, printing and playback of consumer data, with the recognition and organization of the images or content available across multiple devices.”   

Under terms of the memorandum of understanding between the EVERPLAY founders and OSTA, the specification will be administered as a working group within OSTA.  The EVERPLAY specification and trademarks will continue to be licensed freely to products and services that are compatible with the EVERPLAY standard. OSTA will maintain the everplay-spec.org website. 

OSTA representatives will be available to meet with potential licensees of the EVERPLAY specification at the upcoming Photo Marketing Association International Convention and Trade Show in Las Vegas, March 8 – 11. Interested parties may contact Debbie Maguire at debbie@osta.org to find out more about EVERPLAY and our activities at PMA.

EVERPLAY Background
Methods to organize and preserve digital images have evolved independently by many different companies and have lost interoperability among different manufacturers systems.  There are also potential playback problems as time passes, systems evolve and formats change.  The EVERPLAY specification aims to resolve these issues and respond to consumers’ needs to protect images and enjoy widespread interoperability.  The specification is designed to make it easy to implement in products and services and uses next-generation XML language to guarantee interoperability. 

By signing the licensing agreement, which is available on the EVERPLAY website (www.everplay-spec.org), any company can acquire a royalty-free license to implement the specification, use the trademarks and obtain rights to the patents owned by the EVERPLAY founders.  In addition, a software development kit (SDK) v.1.10 and verifying tool v1.10 are available at no cost.  OSTA will now manage the administration, licensing and future development of the EVERPLAY brand and specification.

The original Picture Archiving and Sharing Standard (PASS), which was the name of the project to develop the EVERPLAY specification, was awarded the prestigious Best Technology in Europe 2005 Award at the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) European Photo & Imaging Awards 2005.

About Eastman Kodak Company
Kodak is the world’s foremost imaging innovator. With sales of $13.3 billion in 2006, the company is committed to a digitally oriented growth strategy focused on helping people better use meaningful images and information in their life and work. Consumers use Kodak’s system of digital and traditional products and services to take, print and share their pictures anytime, anywhere; Businesses effectively communicate with customers worldwide using Kodak solutions for prepress, conventional and digital printing and document imaging; Creative Professionals rely on Kodak technology to uniquely tell their story through moving or still images; and leading Healthcare organizations rely on Kodak’s innovative products, services and customized workflow solutions to help improve patient care and maximize efficiency and information sharing within and across their enterprise.  More information about Kodak (NYSE: EK) is available at
www.kodak.com.

About Fujifilm
Fujifilm Group is a leading global provider of imaging, information and document-related products and services, and a pioneer of a wide range of digital systems.  It had global revenues of Yen2.667 trillion (US$22.8 billion, at the rate of Yen117=US$1) in the year ended March 31, 2006 and 75,845 employees worldwide.  Its Imaging Solutions segment includes digital cameras, color film as well as photofinishing equipment/services.  Flat panel display materials, medical imaging, graphic arts and other businesses constitute its Information Solutions segment, and digital color copiers and other office products/services comprise the Document Solutions segment. Through development and selective application of its advanced digital, network, image processing, and other proprietary technologies, the Fujifilm Group has expanded from its original field of silver-halide photographic films into diverse new business fields. As a global company with a reputation for the highest quality and reliability, Fujifilm will use leading-edge, proprietary technologies to provide top-quality products and services that contribute to the advancement of culture, science, technology and industry, as well as improved health and environmental protection in society.
More information about Fujifilm (NASDAQ:FUJI) is available at
http://www.fujifilm.com/.

About Konica Minolta
Konica Minolta Group's business domain spans "from imaging input to output.” The Group offers diverse products and services for new digital imaging environments in a wide range of fields. Our business domain is broad, including office equipment, optical devices, medical imaging, graphic imaging and measuring instruments. More information about Konica Minolta is available at http://konicaminolta.com/.

About the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA)
The Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA) was incorporated as an international trade association in 1992 to promote the use of recordable optical technologies and products.  The organization's membership includes optical product manufacturers and resellers from three continents, representing more than 85 percent of worldwide writable optical product shipments.  They work to shape the future of the industry through regular meetings of DVD Compatibility, Commercial Optical Storage Applications (COSA), MPV, ODAT and UDF committees. Interested companies worldwide are invited to join the organization and participate in its programs by contacting an OSTA representative at (408) 253-3695, by fax at (408) 253-9938, or by addressing its Web site at http://www.osta.org.

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