Sun kicks off open DRM project

[Jhinuk Cchowdhury]

Sun kicks off open DRM project

Sun Microsystems wants to create an open and free digital rights
management technology.

The company's president and chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz
unveiled the new project called Dream (DRM everywhere available) at
the Progress and Freedom Foundation Aspen Summit in Colorado.

Digital rights management technology ensures access to digital content
for legitimate users while blocking access to individuals who try to
access the data in violation with its licence. Many companies have
developed DRM technologies, including Apple, Microsoft and Real. Those
technologies however aren't compatible, meaning that a song purchased
in Apple's iTunes music store can't be played in media players from
Microsoft or Real.

Such an abundance of DRM technologies is holding back the adoption of
digital media, claimed Schwartz.

"We must not allow progress to be stifled by clumsy, self-defeating
Internet tollgates in the form of a monolithic, closed digital rights
management system. "

Schwartz expects that by creating an open source DRM technology, he
can set a standard that is used across the industry.

"We fundamentally believe that a federated DRM solution must be built
by the community, for the community."

Dream had been under development by researchers in Sun Labs since
2002. Sun has made the software available under the common development
and distribution licence (CDDL), an open source licence governed by
the enterprise computing vendor.

The technology allows DRM technologies to interoperate. It enables
licences to be issued to individual users rather than that restrict
the use of content to certain devices based on its manufacturer.

In additional to the interoperability technology, Dream contains
software to allow for video delivery.

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2141430/sun-kick-open-drm-project

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"You see things and ask why, I dream of things as never before and ask
why not" :)
GB Shaw