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A sample of some of the industry consortia aiming to create DRM standards provides a sense of how chaotic the landscape looks today: Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) OASIS is a non-profit international consortium that creates interoperable industry specifications based on public standards such as XML (Extensible Markup Language). In rights management, this language has been extended to XrML. (The "r" stands for rights.) The goal for XrML is to expand the usefulness of digital content by providing a flexible, extensible and interoperable industry standard language that is platform-, media-, and format-independent. The International DOI Foundation (IDF) Established in 1998, the IDF seeks to set up the digital equivalent of the ISBN book cataloguing system. Their solution, the Digital Object Identifier System (DOI), can be used to identify and exchange any form of intellectual content in the digital environment. The IDF's membership includes publishers (Association of American Publishers), scientific organizations (American Chemical Society) and hardware and software manufacturers (Microsoft, Adobe and Hewlett-Packard). The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) A working group of ISO/IEC (International Organization for Standardization/ International Electrotechnical Commission), the Moving Pictures Experts Group is in charge of the development of standards for coded representation of digital audio and video. Established in 1988, the group produced MPEG-1 (the standard on which such products as Video CD and MP3 are based). Further efforts include MPEG-2 (for products such as digital television set-top boxes and DVDs), MPEG-4 (multimedia for the fixed and mobile web) and MPEG-7 (the standard for description and search of audio and visual content). In June, 2000, work began on a new standard, MPEG-21, which seeks to define the technology needed to exchange, access, consume, trade and otherwise manipulate digital items in an efficient, transparent and interoperable way. http://mpeg.telecomitalialab.com RealNetworks XMCL RealNetworks has proposed another rights management solution, XMCL (Extensible Media Commerce Language), which is included in the latest RealPlayer and in the Helix DNA Platform, a new open source Internet media server technology from RealNetworks. An important feature of XMCL is that it describes freedoms as well as restrictions. The XMCL initiative is supported by a broad array of industry-leading technology and media companies including Abril Group, Accenture, Adobe Systems, Anystream, America Online, Artesia Technologies, Avid Technology, Bertelsmann, British Telecom's BTopenworld, Clear Channel, Context Media, EMI Recorded Music, eMotion, IBM, IFILM, InterTrust, MGM, Napster, Rightsline, Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment, Starz Encore Group, Sun Microsystems, Tiscali, Viant, and Virage. The Secure Digital Music Initiative A forum of more than 200 companies and organizations from information technology, consumer electronics, security technology and the worldwide recording industry, as well as Internet service providers (ISPs), SDMI seeks to develop a voluntary, open framework for playing, storing, and distributing digital music. SDMI's work has been divided into two phases: The first, already complete, was to produce a specification for portable devices. The second, longer-term goal is to establish an overall architecture for delivery of digital music in all forms. Unfortunately, on May 18, 2001, SDMI acknowledged a lack of consensus for selecting a Phase II content protection technology, and the group's research arm went on hiatus. Digital Rights Management | An Interview with Scott Dinsdale |
