Consumer-Electronics Firms Join To Develop Antipiracy Software

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB110609171910929502,00.html>

The Wall Street Journal

      January 19, 2005

Consumer-Electronics Firms Join
 To Develop Antipiracy Software

By DON CLARK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 19, 2005; Page D5


Some of the biggest consumer-electronics companies are jointly developing
new technology to control how consumers use digital content in the home.

The companies -- Sony Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Philips Electronics
NV and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., maker of Panasonic-brand
products -- today are announcing what they are calling the Marlin Joint
Development Association. The group, which includes a Silicon Valley company
called Intertrust Technologies Corp., plans to develop standard
specifications for software that can prevent digital movies and music from
being improperly copied. It also intends to enforce rules about how such
content can be played and shared.

Fears of piracy have discouraged content owners from allowing some
high-definition video and other digital programming from being distributed
in the home. Makers of devices such as digital recorders and DVD players,
meanwhile, are worried about adopting incompatible antipiracy technologies,
which could mean a protected movie or song might play on one gadget but not
another.

Such technology is known by the acronym DRM, for digital rights management.
Microsoft Corp. has been trying to get hardware makers to use its
proprietary DRM software. Other companies, such as Apple Computer Inc.,
have developed such technology for their own products. A confusing array of
joint DRM projects have also popped up, addressing specific problems such
as video on a new-generation of disks that are expected to succeed DVDs.

What makes Marlin different, backers say, is mainly that it is emanating
from some of the biggest brands in consumer electronics. "The CE industry
has been pretty quiet," said Talal Shamoon, Intertrust's chief executive.
Now, they are "detonating their DRM," he said.

But Michael McGuire, an analyst at Gartner Inc., noted that the new effort
has yet to show it will win support from content holders, such as movie
studios. The proliferation of DRM efforts also could confuse consumers. "If
I'm a user, I'm wondering, is this going to make things more complicated
for me?" Mr. McGuire said.

Some of Marlin's current members also are likely to consider multiple DRM
options. Sony, for example, said it is too early to say whether it will
favor Marlin over its proprietary DRM technologies. "We are actively
evaluating opportunities to use Marlin," said Mack Araki, a Sony spokesman.
But "I can't comment on specific plans today."

Marlin comes on the heels of an earlier joint effort, called the Coral
Consortium, that had some common members with Marlin. Coral, however, was
designed to let different DRM programs work together, rather than establish
a specific piece of software as a standard for hardware companies to adopt,
Mr. Shamoon said. Both efforts were partly based on technology developed by
Intertrust, a company that was jointly purchased in 2003 by Sony, Philips
and other investors.

Success of earlier such efforts has been mixed. While DRM systems usually
make piracy more difficult, hackers have successfully cracked some
high-profile protection schemes, including FairPlay, the copy-protection
software Apple uses for music it sells through its iTunes Music Store.


-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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