Studios – Sans Apple – Form DRM 'Ecosystem'

Written by Ryan Lawler

Monday, September 15. 2008 at 11:45 AM EDT 1 comment

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Major studios have teamed up in hopes of building a digital media "ecosystem" that would allow users to access purchased content across a number of devices.

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. , Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE/Toronto: LGF), Paramount Pictures Corp. , NBC Universal , and Sony Pictures Digital Inc. have banded together with major electronics companies to form the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), an industry consortium designed to create a digital media standard for protected content.

Also participating in the initiative are technology companies such as Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), and Toshiba Corp. (Tokyo: 6502).

The group hopes to create a specification by which users will be able to access their purchased libraries of content on their PCs or across any of their consumer electronics devices -- a "buy once, play anywhere" proposition.

The consortium also hopes to allow consumers to rip and burn copies of digital media files or DVDs that they buy. Finally, the group plans to design a logo designating products and Websites that are compliant with the standard. According to the group, more details will be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) early next year.

Noticeably absent from the group are Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) Apple is the current market leader in digital media downloads, but its files rely on a proprietary DRM scheme called FairPlay that only works on Apple products such as the iPhone, iPod, or iTunes software.

By creating an open standard for digital media files, the studios could be seeking to break Apple's hegemony in the marketplace. However, previous efforts to assure users that their content will work across multiple brands and devices -- such as Microsoft's PlaysForSure initiative -- have failed in the past.