Disney has not yet signed on with new DRM system
Tue, 20 Jul 2010
Today, the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem announced a new cloud-based video-encryption system that it hopes will be used to allow digital users to stream content to various electronic devices and keep the DRM restrictions on the media intact.
But of the 60 media and computer organizations who signed on to the new concept, there are two notable exceptions: Apple and Disney.
DECE’s new system is, essentially, an electronic “locker” that would contain and authenticate a user’s privileges to watch certain media, such as videos they have purchased, across devices and platforms.
Users would have to create accounts in order to have access to the electronic lockers, though details of such accounts were not forthcoming today. (Nor were costs for the new system revealed.)
The system, which has been in the works for a couple of years, will be called UltraViolet and will be in beta testing later this fall.
Reportedly, it will work first with movies and TV shows, but there is hope among some on the media-supply side that the concept eventually can include music and e-books.
DECE members who signed on to the concept include such big content distributors and consumer-electronic companies as Microsoft, NBC Universal, Sony, Warner Brothers, Best Buy, Fox, NetFlix, Comcast and others.
So, where is Disney and Apple on this?
First, Disney is working on its own authentification format for portable devices, called KeyChest. It possibly will be released later this year.
And Apple already is committed to its own DRM system called FairPlay, which is the standard used on media purchased through iTunes and allows people to use purchased content on multiple devices.
The idea of UltraViolet has attracted some praise from industry observers, yet many have asked: If Disney – with its huge library of media content – and Apple, the acknowledged pace-setter for most all consumer media technology today, aren’t taking part, is this an idea doomed to fail from the start?
Ars Technica’s Jacqui Cheng closes her post on the news by writing that “without the participation of the most popular portable media player on the market, UltraViolet is going to fall short of its ambitious goal of becoming the media industry’s ‘universal DRM.’ “
Likewise, it’s fairly easy to see how for those who enjoy Disney’s video offerings – and that population segment is, of course, huge worldwide – UltraViolet might not be the shining light of success that its creators and supporters hope it will be.
Steven Ford, Orlando Sentinel
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