Sega of America today announced its strong endorsement of Amazon.com Auctions' and zShops' (NASDAQ: AMZN) commitment to end the sale of illegal DreamcastÔ videogames and pirated boot disks on Amazon.com's auction and zShops sites. Since the inception of Amazon.com's auction site on March 31, 1999, Amazon's Alliance Program has proactively removed counterfeit and unauthorized items to insure that consumers will receive legal, authentic and officially licensed products when participating in the auctions and when making purchases from zShops.

As part of its aggressive effort to combat piracy, Sega is continually working with online sites and third-party partners to protect its intellectual property by cracking down on people counterfeiting the popular Dreamcast videogames. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Sega and all software publishers are protected against software pirates, and legal actions (civil and criminal) will be taken on any individual selling or proliferating pirated software over the Internet. Sega and Amazon.com have taken the initiative to proactively locate and shutdown these auction sites before legal actions are necessary.

"Amazon.com shares the concern of manufacturers like Sega regarding sales of counterfeit products sold via the Internet," said Eric Orpet, manager of Amazon.com's Alliance Program. "That's why we're proud to be recognized as an industry leader when it comes to enforcing copyright and trademark protections and preventing piracy. Through proprietary technology, our Alliance team is able to proactively locate and remove counterfeit products from our site, to insure the best auction experience for our customers."

"With the support of industry leaders like Amazon.com, we are able to better control and protect our business and creative talent," said Charles Bellfield, director of marketing communications, Sega of America . "The interactive entertainment industry loses billions of dollars to piracy each year and a stand needs to be taken against these parasites. This is no longer an issue that only affects the videogame industry, but it affects all creative content, be it music or videogames."

The interactive entertainment industry lost more than $3.2 billion to pirates in 1998, not including the millions of dollars lost to Internet piracy. Sega and its third-party partners will continue to take aggressive action against counterfeiters in order to protect its intellectual property. To avoid buying counterfeit items, it is recommended that consumers only buy official Sega Dreamcast videogames from major retailers. Consumers can ensure that they have authentic Sega Dreamcast games by looking for the following: 1) The underneath of the game CD should be silver - not black or gold - with three clearly visible tracks; 2) The first track should be large, the middle one small and the third medium-sized. The middle track should state "copyright Sega Entertainment Ltd."