DRM Providers and Proposals

Spurred by the demands of content owners, numerous computer and consumer electronics companies have created or proposed their own digital rights management (DRM) schemes.

Microsoft introduced Windows Media DRM with the Windows Media Technologies 7.0 platform in 2000. A Windows Media DRM SDK enables content owners to apply rights, such as how many times a Windows Media file can be played or how many PCs or devices it may be transferred to before expiring. It also allows content owners or third parties to create servers for administering and distributing licenses for protected content.

Apple uses a DRM technology called FairPlay, originally developed by Veridisc, to protect music files downloaded from its iTunes Music Store. The only portable music player that can decode FairPlay is Apple’s iPod music player, and Apple has not announced any plans to license FairPlay more broadly.

Content Management License Administrator (CMLA) is a DRM licensing and compliance framework proposed by a consortium that includes Intel, mm02, Nokia, Panasonic/Matsushita, RealNetworks, Samsung, and Warner Brothers Studios (the movie division of Time Warner). Technical details about CMLA, formerly known as Project Hudson, are vague, but it will use version 2.0 of the Open Mobile Alliance’s DRM specifications, which in turn uses Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL), a competitor to XrML.