Against a backdrop of recent US Congressional hearings on copy protection, ContentGuard has finally made good on a promise to release control of its digital rights management language to a standards body. ContentGuard said it has contributed its extensible rights markup language, XrML, to the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, a consortium working on XML standards.
To create a home for XrML, other OASIS members had to agree to 'sponsor' a committee. Hewlett-Packard, VeriSign and Reuters are new supporters that have joined ContentGuard and Microsoft (already a partner of ContentGuard's) to form the Rights Language Technical Committee (RLTC).
Context ContentGuard's news comes as movie studios are ramping up efforts to get the US Congress to pass legislation enforcing the use of copy protection mechanisms in digital devices. Such legislation, already introduced, is a bad idea because it only brings new headaches to consumers: content that won't run on legacy devices or on devices with different copy protection systems, and a narrowing of consumers' rights.
Digital content flows across all devices and across the boundaries of the publishing, music, television and movie industries. A rights language such as XrML is needed not legislation so that companies can use content protection technology from multiple vendors. Eventually, a rights language could help different industries interact with each other, which unlike the current approach would have the effect of increasing convenience for the consumer.
Technology By submitting XrML to OASIS, ContentGuard has delivered on its promise to relinquish control over the development of the language. Additions to the language will now be subject to that organization's usual submission and approval process, and OASIS will be responsible for managing any extensions. Membership on the Rights Language Technical Committee is open to other OASIS members that wish to have a say in the development of the standard.
ContentGuard does not give up its ability to license the technology on customary, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, however, as it might have had to do if it had submitted XrML to the W3C. The company says it has patents that cover the use of a grammar or language that's part of a system for distributing digital works in other words, pretty much any language that is used for rights management, including a modified XrML.
Competition Real Networks had proposed an alternative rights language last year called XMCL, but this plan has reportedly been shelved. In the publishing industry, the communication standards XMP, PRISM and ICE all appear to overlap somewhat in the area of tracking rights and permissions, and thus to overlap somewhat with XrML, too.
At least five standards bodies, including MPEG and SMPTE for multimedia, Open eBook Forum for e-publishing and the W3C for Internet standards, are assessing whether the problem of interoperable DRM systems can be addressed with a standard rights data dictionary and rights description language. MPEG-21 has adopted XrML as the basis for the rights language it is developing.
Conclusion "Standards will be important for the successful adoption of DRM in information commerce," said John Erickson, systems program manager for DRM at HP Labs, in a statement, and the451 agrees. The inclusion of HP, VeriSign and Reuters on the committee is an important sign that ContentGuard has been able to build outside support for its approach.
Potential licensees may remain concerned about ContentGuard's relationship with Microsoft, which is a shareholder in the company along with Xerox. It's an issue that could dampen interest in XrML even now that it is under the OASIS umbrella.
CEO Michael Miron says Xerox is "still interested in broadening the ownership of ContentGuard. It [would be] another indicator we intend to be a neutral provider of important standards," he told the451. Since ContentGuard has made good on its promise to submit XrML to an open standards group, the addition of new stakeholders would be the next milestone by which to judge XrML's ability to reach its potential.
| Related analysis |
- RealNetworks vs. ContentGuard, XMCL vs. XrML
The DRM industry is a hodgepodge of incompatible systems. Will efforts to unite them through a common language go down the same path? (5 Jul 2001)
- ContentGuard scales back
Up to 70% of staff will be laid off as company exits digital rights management services to focus solely on licensing IP and promoting XrML. (9 Aug 2001)
- Finding XrML a home
ContentGuard still looking for a place to put XrML development. Meanwhile, OverDrive will use XrML in its e-book publishing service. (2 Oct 2001)
- CEA, NCTA remain divided on DTV
DTV compatibility issues are still not resolved — 21 months after original agreement. (13 Nov 2001)
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