Studios Bid On Liberating Digital Media 'Ecosystem'

Hollywood is uniting to challenge Apple's domination in the digital media distribution market. Major studios are teaming up with leading retailers and electronics companies in a bid to transform the paid movie download in an experience similar to buying DVDs, while combating piracy at the same time, Reuters reports.

The consortium, known as the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), bids to let video purchased at any outlet be played on any device worldwide. With Digital Rights Management (DRM) confining millions to play their digital files on a few key mobile devices, this recent move is set to liberate the people to play their files on a variety of platforms and devices.

DECE is formed by Warner Bros. Entertainment, Fox Entertainment Group, NBC Universal, Sony, Paramount Pictures and Comcast Corp. Best Buy is present in the retailers sections while Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Philips, Intel, Toshiba and Verisign will provide the hardware platforms. Disney Studios, one of Apple's key partners, has not joined DECE.

How will this work?

DECE wants to bundle all their member's proprietary digital rights together, so that the participating devices and services will be interoperable. This means that if you buy a movie, you could watch it on any DECE device, regardless of brand, such as on a Sony Walkman or on a Microsoft Zune, without a hassle. Also, DECE's DRM system will allow an unlimited number of copies of a video to be burned onto a disc.

This DRM liberation will mean direct competition to Apple, who reportedly refused to join DECE. Apple is the biggest player in the digital media market and its "Fairplay" DRM system restricts files bought through iTunes to be played on more than five computers or on any mobile device other than iPod or iPhone.

To make things even easier, DECE intends to give users the option not to store their digital file on their computer at all, but rather have it streamed to their device of choice from a server reachable from any location worldwide.

Who's next?

While other big companies like CBS Corp., Amazon, Walmart, AT&T or Verizon have not been named as part of DECE, Mitch Singer, chief technology officer at Sony Pictures (and DECE President) said that companies that haven't joined the consortium yet, have not opposed the alliance either.

Moreover, DECE said that it will create open standards so that companies that create content or services can join the liberation movement, according to the consortium's specifications. So if DECE proves to be fruitful in the future, we might see a plethora of content creators and distributors joining in, both major or even indies.

Heard it all before...

This isn't the first time we hear about DRM ecosystems challenging Apple's dominance in the market. Microsoft had its own PlaysForSure DRM system a while back and dropped it in 2007 when it launched Zune. Similar moves were made by Intel with its Viiv brand but no luck for them either. In the past few years, nothing managed to stop Apple's growth.

Meanwhile, piracy is still rampant due to strict DRM and formats and DVD sales are slowing as consumers use more subscription services like Netflix. It is yet for us to see whether DECE will be any good for consumers, even though the idea sounds good.

Comments

Post a comment Post a comment

0 / 1000 max characters