Managing Rights Management

Pointed Commentary on P2P File Sharing

Check out Lauren Weinstein's 60 second commentary on the efforts to hold P2P software companies responsible for piracy. His blog his here and the audio feed is here. Read more →

OMA Royalty Flap

According to a Reuters story that ran on Friday, consumer electronics companies are unhappy with the royalties proposed by OMA. Here's a portion of the story: A handful of technology companies are overcharging for anti-piracy software needed for digital music stores on the Internet, preventing the emergence of open standards,... Read more →

Who Is Making Money?

Many of the companies that specialize in DRM software are privately held. Consequently, little is known about their revenue and profitability. Many public companies active in rights management use their own proprietary system as a component of products or services -- Microsoft and Apple and Real come to mind --... Read more →

The Chilling Effect - Maybe

According to Reuters via CNN Money, the Motion Picture Association of America has filed suit against a number of John Doe's alleging that they misappropriated copyrighted movies. Excerpts: Studios sue traders of illegally copied films traded online, seek up to $150,000 per download. LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The civil suits... Read more →

Recently Published DRM Patent Applications

Every Thursday, the US Patent and Trademark Office publishes pending patent applications. Publication has no bearing on whether a patent will eventually be issued based on the application. Still, issued patents and published applications are often indicators of what people have been thinking about and the kinds of things that... Read more →

Wither Enterprise DRM Vendors?

What's the future of Enterprise DRM vendors such as Authentica, IntraWare, Liquid Machines, SealedMedia, to name a few? What strategies can companies like these employ to ensure not only that they survive, but thrive, especially when the need for Enterprise DRM-enabled applications is so great? Why do these questions arise... Read more →

Doonesbury and Barlow

In case you've been missing it, Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury comic strip this week has been addressing the music industry. Strip stalwart Jimmy Thudpucker in today's strip (February 24, 2005) being interviewed: "So Jimmy, You really think the collapse of the recording industry would be good for music? Absolutely. Without record... Read more →

Recently Issued DRM Patents

The US Patent Office issues new patents on Tuesdays. DRM continues to be an active area of innovation, including patents issued to leading DRM companies, such as Microsoft and ContentGuard. For example, two of the patents that issued recently relating to DRM are: 6,859,533, "System and method for transferring the... Read more →

Doubling Up

The number of people reporting that theyhad bought music on the net doubled from 2003 to 2004, this according to a research report liberally quoted by Barry L. Ritholtz. The excerpt doesn't indicate what happened to dollars spent over the same interval. Read more →

FCC Hears Arguments In HDTV Case

According to Reuters, A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday said that regulators had overstepped their authority by imposing a rule designed to limit the copying of digital television programs. "You crossed the line," Judge Harry Edwards told a lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission during arguments before a three-judge panel... Read more →