IP: DRM at `DOS level'

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> [Note:  This item comes from reader Janos Gereben.  DLH]
>
> At 17:52 -0700 7/25/01, Janos Gereben wrote:
> > From: "Janos Gereben" <janos451 () earthlink net>
> > Subject: DRM at `DOS level'
> > Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 17:52:30 -0700
> > MIME-Version: 1.0
> >
> > InterTrust DRM takes small steps to mass market
> > Dawn Hayes - www.the451.com
> >
> > London - Digital rights management (DRM) software is a bit like
> > operating system software, and right now it's at the DOS stage. When
> > InterTrust Technologies announced its next-generation product at
> > Jupiter MMXI's Plug.In event for the music industry in New York this
> > week, it became clear just how unwieldy and expensive the company's
> > previous-generation product was. In the same way that DOS never became
> > a mass-market product, DRM won't make the big time until it's easier
> > to use.
> >
> > The new product, called Rights System, allows content owners to sell
> > rights-protected video, audio and text to users of any device.
> > InterTrust's current product, Commerce System, makes this possible
> > only for PCs. But few believe it's as simple as that. On a mobile
> > phone, for example, once content is pumped out into the clear, no DRM
> > company can stop people intercepting it.
> >
> > "The DRM companies, with the exception of Adobe, are very
> > patent-oriented and engineering-driven," said Kirstie Chadwick, CEO of
> > DigitalOwl, an applications company that built its own DRM
> > infrastructure on the grounds that commercial products on the market
> > were too difficult to implement. DigitalOwl's core business is
> > developing DRM applications for publishers.
> >
> > Chadwick also said InterTrust's current generation supports only the
> > PDF format. InterTrust's commercial development manager in Europe,
> > Andrew Robins, claims Rights System and Commerce System support XML,
> > HTML and JPEG as well as PDF. But DRM is a game of smoke and mirrors.
> >
> > Competitors say Rights System is just a repackaged version of the
> > current system, making it easier to use. In fact, that's no mean feat.
> > Consumers unfortunate enough to run into Commerce System - or almost
> > any other DRM software for that matter - having elected to pay for a
> > first piece of content, must spend at least 30 minutes downloading the
> > DRM application to clear the transaction on the server. That's because
> > on Commerce System there's 6MB of it, mainly to enable payments to be
> > processed by a third-party clearing house such as Magex, Mercurix or
> > Bertelsmann's Digital World Services subsidiary.
> >
> > With the new software, content owners can link DRM to their own
> > internal billing systems, which has eliminated a vast chunk of code.
> > Consumers only need to wait about a minute to download the billing
> > software. In most cases, InterTrust says, the software is already
> > installed on Adobe's Acrobat 5 Reader. It will also shortly be
> > embedded in chips in mobile phones from Nokia.
> >
> > The issue of costs is another thorny issue: Rights System costs
> > £100,000-500,000 ($142,000-711,000) to implement. Analysts say
> > Commerce System costs up to a whopping £6m to implement and takes
> > several months of blood, sweat and tears to install; InterTrust said
> > it takes "not much more than four weeks" to install Rights System.
> > That's still too long, but ASPs can get companies up and running
> > quicker.
> >
> > Adobe, Blockbuster, Enron, Nokia and 16 portable device manufacturers
> > have already adopted Rights System, which will become available in
> > September, according to InterTrust. "It's a large-scale system and we
> > expect the music publishers to go for it first," said Robins.
> >
> > Another improvement on Commerce System is that Rights System is
> > modular. Companies in the business of selling video on demand on an
> > outright purchase basis, for example, can ignore the InterTrust's
> > subscription server product. And where Commerce System depends on
> > customers tethering their devices to a PC to transfer content from one
> > device to another, Rights System does not.
> >
> > One of the biggest unknowns for content owners is whether consumers
> > are prepared to pay for content online. What is clear is that they
> > will be even less inclined to do so if that means they must deal with
> > complex software downloads. The companies that dominate the DRM
> > space - ContentGuard, Microsoft, Adobe, SealedMedia and InterTrust -
> > will need to deal with this issue in short measure. Beyond that, there
> > is little to no interoperability between different vendors' systems.
> > There's a long way to go yet in the DRM space.



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