Salt Lake City, Nov. 22, 2002 — ClearPlay Inc., a leading maker of DVD-playing software that enables viewers to bypass certain profane, sexual and violent content from films viewed in the home, has retained prominent California-based law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and noted technology trademark and copyright litigator Andrew Bridges for corporate representation and help in responding to claims filed by the Directors Guild of America.

Bridges, a litigation partner for WSGR and lead attorney for the DGA case, is considered one of a select group of lawyers in the country to specialize in defending technology companies in high-profile trademark and copyright litigation. He is credited with successfully halting attempts in 1999 by the Recording Industry Association of America to ban sales of Rio, the digital audio player from WSGR former client Diamond Multimedia. More recently, Bridges has represented Streamcast Networks, makers of the popular peer-to-peer software, Morpheus.

ClearPlay, which was named along with several other companies as co-defendants in claims filed by the DGA in September, has continually emphasized the differences in its technology and business model from that of CleanFlicks, the Utah-based retail chain which rents out edited versions of popular Hollywood movies and sparked the original controversy. Unlike CleanFlicks, ClearPlay does not create edited versions of videos or DVDs, but rather markets a software technology that enables home viewers of movies on DVD to skip over or mute certain select scenes while viewing a film on a home player.

"Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is representing ClearPlay because its technology is both compelling and beneficial, expanding the audience of persons who want to enjoy movies they would not otherwise have a chance to enjoy because of offensive scenes," Bridges explained, adding that the issue at hand was primarily a matter of facilitating individual choice.

"New technologies like this give consumers new choices and new control over their viewing experiences. Hollywood, on the other hand, wants to limit these choices," he said. "The complete control the DGA is seeking extends far beyond any intellectual property rights, and we look forward to demonstrating that ClearPlay fully respects all the rights that media creators have under the law."

"We have been very confident from the beginning that this is a lawsuit that does not apply to ClearPlay," said ClearPlay CEO Bill Aho. "Nevertheless, we are treating the matter very seriously. There is no better choice for a legal team than WSGR and Andrew Bridges."