 The group isn't trying to recreate copy protection products such
as those sold by Microsoft or IBM -- but it hopes to simplify the legal,
technological and licensing chaos that has helped keep an antipiracy
standard from evolving.
"Without a strong
digital rights management system, digital content providers have
limitations on their ability -- and really their desire -- to provide
content," Lawrence Horn, spokesman for MPEG LA, said on Thursday. "This is
our effort to give people some level of comfort."
During the past few
years, Microsoft's products have risen to the point of a near-standard in
the nascent business of digital film and music distribution, aided by the
financial collapse of several potential rivals. But media companies aren't
ready to cede full control of the market to a single company, particularly
one as powerful as Microsoft.
As a result, they've
continued experimenting with Microsoft and other rivals while watching
closely for signs of open standards such as those created under the
auspices of the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). To date, that body's
recommendations have lacked copy protection components, but it is now
slowly starting to address the issue.
MPEG LA isn't waiting,
though.
The group's description
of an acceptable DRM technology isn't intended as a traditional standard.
It hasn't been vetted over time by panels of industry experts. It doesn't
describe how to do or build anything specific. It just provides a "high
level" outline of the features MPEG LA thinks should be included in an
average acceptable content-protection system.
The group is asking any
company that has patented copy-protection technologies to submit them. If
the licensing coalition thinks that a given technology fits the
description, the technology will be placed, with the patent holder's
permission, on a list of patents that can be licensed all at once. The
list will be made available to people or companies that want to create
their own devices or software that includes an element of content
protection. MPEG LA will simply provide the list of all the DRM
technologies available, with a listed price, and serve as a one-stop shop
for anyone who's interested.
If Samsung, for example,
wanted to build a new mobile video player that included DRM support, it
could come directly to MPEG LA for the licences it needed instead of
researching and licensing a myriad of others' patents.
If enough companies in
the business join the coalition, MPEG LA's generic description may even
take on some of the influence of a standard, driving what people expect
from DRM without ever having gone through the drawn-out standards process,
industry insiders say. | 
