Managing Rights Management

Recently Issued Patents

The US Patent Office issues new patents on Tuesdays. Issued patents and published applications may be early indicators of the kinds of issues being addressed by inventors and/or the companies for whom they work. As it turned out, there were few issuances today relating to rights management. Assigned to InterTrust,... Read more →

Are Vendors Keeping Too Many Rights?

In an interesting article, Dan Gillmor says vendors are keeping too many rights and in doing so, provides an interesting collection of examples. Snippets: Technology vendors strive for lock-in. They lock us in with obvious tricks, such as Microsoft with its file formats, a monopoly mechanism as pervasive as its... Read more →

How IPTV May Change The Role Of Telecom Infrastructure

This longish article in Billing World addresses how telecom (broadly construed) back office infrastructures are evolving to address the delivery of video programming over the Internet (IPTV) and over cellular networks. There are lots of 3- and 4-letter acronyms and vendor names, but the main points include that back office... Read more →

Oracle Implementing DRM

This article in The Inquirer says in passing that Oracle is implementing DRM, in part to address the telecom market. Snippet: [Oracle] ... will continue to introduce more software products aimed at Telcos. For example it is building DRM (Digital Rights management) software based on the recent open standard -... Read more →

Dennis McDonald's Thoughtful Comments

[Apart from ad hominum attacks, comments are always welcome here. I have, however, disabled automatic posting; each comment requires approval, this to avoid "comment spam."] In his comments on my EFF/DRM blogicle, McDonald raises a number of issues that merit a response. 1. Context-based rules for addressing fair use concerns... Read more →

Digital Rights Are Key to Intel's Digital Home Vision

Widely covered in the press, Intel has announced a major initiative to market PCs for the home entertainment market under its own new brand, ViiV. This PCMag article focuses on an interview with Don Whiteside, Intel's vice president of technology and policy standards. Whiteside presents a balanced view of various... Read more →

EFF's Anti-DRM Crusade

Let me be direct: Cory Doctorow and EFF's anti-DRM temper tantrum get it mostly wrong. There is probably no effective DRM that will make them happy. Ever. That's their right, of course. In this posting, they claim that Sun's Open Media Commons initiative to create non-infringing, royalty-free rights management implementations... Read more →

The Broadcast Flag Rises From The Ashes - Maybe

[tip 'o the hat to Dave Farber's IP list.] In an attempt to protect high definition video content, major content companies have been lobbying for some time to include a "broadcast flag" in the video stream indicating that the stream was protected content [The full standards document is here-big PDF... Read more →

openmediacommons.org

Those interested in more information including technical details regarding Sun's Open Media Commons DRM initiative should check out the Open Media Commons web site. The site is oriented mostly to developers. Read more →

Recently Published 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 →