Managing Rights Management

Wells Fargo and Pinx Blockchain and Rights Management Patents

Blockchains (smart contracts, distributed ledgers) and rights management broadly construed are the themes of today's Spotlight Patents. Assigned to Wells Fargo Bank, the first patent addresses techniques for managing data across disparate blockchains. Assigned to Pinx, the second patent addresses techniques for a distributed social media network and system of... Read more →

DECE Moving Toward "buy once, play anywhere" Deployment

Many outlets including New York Times and Variety highlight progress by the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, a broad consortium of companies implementing a cloud-based "buy once, play anywhere" content distribution strategy . DECE has tapped Virginia-based Neustar to operate that digital locker. It's also approved Adobe Flash Access, CMLA-OMA V2,... Read more →

Adobe Opens Up RTMP But Keeps DRM Under Wraps

Ars Technica reports that Adobe is opening up its Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), its widely used streaming media protocol. At the same time, Adobe is taking legal steps to protect the DRM components used in conjunction with RTMP. Adobe has declined publish details about RTMP's DRM mechanism and will expressly... Read more →

Could The Economy Derail Blu-Ray?

Could the bad economy kill Blu-ray? That's the question asked by Ed Oswald posting on Technologizer. ...economic troubles could be exactly what the rest of the industry needs to play catch-up. Streaming media seems to be the logical viable competitor, but it still needs probably another year or two yet... Read more →

Vista, DRM, and Virtualization

Over the weekend, Eric Lai wrote in PCWORLD that Microsoft had decided not to remove restrictions on consumers virtualizing its Vista operating system. The reason given by Lai is that DRM may not work with a virtualized OS. When a user creates a VM, the virtualization software takes a snapshot... Read more →

Gates, BBC On DRM, TV

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Ashley Highfield, the BBC's director of new media and technology did a Q/A at the Mix06 Conference in Las Vegas, this according to an article published on Informitv.com. Topics included DRM. Snippets: Some form of digital rights management or DRM is necessary to protect programming,... Read more →

MSFT, Authentica, and Independent DRM Vendors

BusinessWeekOnline has an interview with attorney Thomas Vinje, who represents Microsoft antagonists, in which Vinje notes: In February, ECIS filed a new complaint that accuses Microsoft of trying to extend its dominance via planned new products, such as a new operating system for servers. What does that mean exactly? What... Read more →

Are MSFT and INTL Greedy?

Writing on HardwareAnalysis.com, Sander Sassen asserts that Microsoft and Intel are acting out of greed in their efforts to secure high definition video and other media content. Greed or smart business? I think the latter. There is, by the way, nothing inherent in well-implemented rights management that prevents the rules... Read more →

Blu-Ray DRM Plans Revealed

According to this worthwhile ExtremeTech article, the Blu-ray Disc Association has settled on its plans for incorporating DRM. Snippets: Both the competing Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats will use the Advanced Access Content System, which was specifically designed for next-generation optical discs. However, the Blu-Ray group will also secure its discs... Read more →

Intel, Linux, and DRM

eWeek has an article on Intel's increasing support for the Linux operating systems that says: But the company [Intel] must still be careful how it addresses the new technologies, particularly those related to security or digital rights management, within the Linux community. DRM, which is generally seen as a method... Read more →

SaaS for DRM?

ASPs (Application Services Providers) are mostly dead having died in the collapse of the Bubble. Well, OK, many are living happy lives at the moment but have eliminated from their names and marketing collateral the term ASP as a way of describing central server-based applications sold on a services model.... Read more →

Intel's Home Entertainment Platform

In an interview given to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) and described here (no subscription required), Intel's new CEO Paul Otellini says that: ...the company expects its next major technology platform for consumers, aimed at the "digital home," will probably be ready early next year. Paul Otellini, speaking at... Read more →

Linux and DRM

I continue to wonder when the Open Source community is going to take DRM seriously. As near as I can tell, it hasn't happened yet, in part because of their general antipathy towards rights, patents, copyright, and Intellectual Property generally. Maybe the winds of change--ok, mild breezes-- can be detected.... Read more →

DRM and the Automotive Industry

ABI Research has put out a press release describing their conclusions regarding Automotive Operating Systems. Snippets: The report finds that the decisions made by automakers and Tier Ones with regard to choice of OS can manifest themselves in many forms. Among the competitive attributes are the total costs associated with... Read more →

Insinuations: Microsoft, Nokia, OMA

Several news outlets covered today's story regarding Microsoft and Nokia partnering up. Here's one. Nokia will make use of Microsoft's DRM 10. The agreement also indicates future interoperability between DRM 10 and OMA, the standard for mobile phone DRM, giving Microsoft a foothold on the mobile platform. Read more →

MSFT and DRM

Brier Dudley has a longish (for a newspaper) article in the Seattle Times that overviews Microsoft's evolving security and DRM strategy. Worth a read. Read more →