An Open and Shut Case: ABI Research on the Future of Digital Rights Management.OYSTER BAY Oyster Bay, uninc. area (1990 pop. 6,687) of the Town of Oyster Bay, Nassau co., SE N.Y., on N Long Island, on Long Island Sound; settled 1653. It is chiefly residential. , N.Y. -- When the US Congressional Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual property invited testimony from four industry experts this week, they were considering nothing less than the future of digital rights management in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . At issue are proprietary versus "open" digital rights management (DRM (1) (Digital Radio Mondiale) A digital audio broadcasting (DAB) system for AM radio in Europe. See HD Radio. (2) (Digital Rights M ) technologies, and whether governments should get involved. "We're at a very interesting crossroads right now," says Vamsi Sistla, ABI Abi (ā`bī) [short for Abijah], in the Bible, King Hezekiah's mother. (Application Binary Interface) A specification for a specific hardware platform combined with the operating system. Research's director of residential entertainment technologies. "Congress and industry leaders are having a healthy debate about the future course of action." ABI Research has published a study, Conditional Access Conditional Access (acronymized CA) is the protection of content by requiring certain criteria to be met before granting access to this content. The term is commonly used in relation to digital television systems, most notably satellite television. & Digital Rights Management, which offers comprehensive data on the penetration of emerging conditional access and digital rights management technologies. Consider the iTunes/iPod example. Apple gambled on a pay-per-song downloadable music model, wrapping the music files in a proprietary DRM format called FairPlay. Apple now enjoys at least 80% market share in this space. Advocates say that open DRM standards would help the portable industry. Most industry leaders are adopting a "government hands off" attitude, but Sistla feels that other attempts at proprietary DRM schemes probably wouldn't succeed. "Apple were the first to offer such a service and the content industry didn't care if their DRM was proprietary. But DRM becomes critical once video, and sharing between STBs and portable devices, become a reality." Video's arrival in the handset is covered in a new ABI Research study, "Mobile Broadcast Video." But he adds that open standards Specifications for hardware and software that are developed by a standards organization or a consortium involved in supporting a standard. Available to the public for developing compliant products, open standards imply "open systems;" that an existing component in a system can be replaced and licensing fees are a much bigger issue in mobile communications than in the portable industry. "There are over 1.7 billion handset users out there, so you need to have some open standard to make it easy for content owners to forge relationships with service providers, equipment vendors and IC manufacturers. If proprietary standards remain, the industry will suffer from the added expense." Founded in 1990 and headquartered in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , ABI Research maintains global operations that support annual research programs, quarterly intelligence services and market reports in wireless, automotive, semiconductors, broadband, and energy. Their market research products can be found on the Web at www.abiresearch.com, or by calling 516.624.2500. |
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