Digital rights war looms ahead
14th January 2009
The future of digital entertainment rights could turn into a battleground for control in the coming months. In one corner is Apple, the largest music retailer in the United States. In the other is DECE, a US consortium of entertainment, retail and IT companies that want to set new standards to transform how consumers buy, access and play digital content.
"This is setting up to be a war between DECE and Apple," said MG Siegler of online news site VentureBeat.com.
"It seems DECE is working on a kind of new generation of DRM (Digital Rights Management or copy protection) so that they will still be able to be in control of the content of their members," he said.
He predicted this will result in a stand off with Apple, which is not a member of DECE.
"Without Apple's participation in DECE, you can be sure that its devices will not play content made by the consortium. It will surely work the other way around also with none of the DECE content being able to be played on Apple devices," suggested Mr Siegler to BBC News.
More than 25 major companies have signed up to be part of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem which plans to set standards and specifications for upcoming devices such as phones, DVD players, streaming services and computers.
DECE includes Sony, Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate, Microsoft, Best Buy, HP, Cisco, and Intel among others.
The full story can be viewed on the BBC News website