[DMCA-Activists] IT World Article on XMCL + RealPlayer DRM

[Seth Johnson]

> http://www.itworld.com/Man/2683/IDG010620real/

Big guns take aim at digital copyright management 

6/20/01


Backed by some of the biggest names in the online
entertainment industry, RealNetworks Inc. on Wednesday
announced the formation of the XMCL (Extensible Media
Commerce Language) Initiative. The company said the
initiative will define an open XML-based (Extensible Markup
Language) framework for managing rights to digital media,
including applications such as purchase, rental,
video-on-demand and subscription services.


The list of companies that are backing the XMCL Initiative
includes media-industry heavyweights like Bertelsmann AG,
EMI Group PLC, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) and
AOL Time Warner Inc. But Microsoft Corp., which has its own
digital-rights management framework built around the Windows
Media Format 7 file format, is conspicuously absent from the
list.

Digital rights management technologies allow copyright
holders to control how movies and songs are used and
distributed online. Also, the technologies can restrict the
number of times a user can play a certain file, or prevent a
file from being copied and passed on to other users. XMCL
will simplify rights management by letting content providers
define business rules in a standard way, RealNetworks said
in a statement. Specific details of how XMCL would be
implemented were not made available.

Microsoft and RealNetworks have long been competitors in the
digital media market, with RealNetworks' RealPlayer and
Microsoft's Windows Media Player battling for desktop
dominance.

AOL's support for RealNetworks' media player is believed to
have been a factor in the breakdown of talks over whether
Microsoft would include a link to AOL's Internet service on
the desktop of its Windows XP operating system, which is
slated for release later this year.

RealNetworks announced the XMCL Initiative at the same time
it launched its RealSystem Media Commerce Suite, a suite of
multimedia content applications. The software will
eventually support XMCL and give users the ability to choose
from a variety of back-end platforms, the company said.

RealSystem Media Commerce Suite can be integrated with
third-party digital rights management applications, such as
flexible rights management software from InterTrust
Technologies Corp., the statement said. InterTrust, which
has filed a patent infringement suit against Microsoft over
digital-rights management in Windows Media Player, is a
member of the XMCL Initiative.

The RealSystem Media Commerce Suite already has one
customer. It will be used to provide security, including
digital-rights management, for MusicNet, the online music
subscription service backed by AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann,
EMI and RealNetworks that is scheduled to be launched later
this year, RealNetworks said in a statement.

The members of the XMCL Initiative are Grupo Abril,
Accenture Ltd., Adobe Systems Inc., Anystream Inc., America
Online, Artesia Technologies Inc., Avid Technology Inc.,
Bertelsmann, British Telecommunications PLC's BTopenworld,
Clear Channel Communications Inc., Context Media Inc., EMI
Recorded Music, eMotion Inc., IBM Corp., iFilm Corp.,
InterTrust, MGM, Napster Inc., RealNetworks, Rightsline
Inc., Sony Corp. of America's Sony Pictures Digital
Entertainment, Starz Encore Group LLC, Sun Microsystems
Inc., Tiscali SpA, Viant Corp., and Virage Inc.

Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service's Hong Kong correspondent,
contributed to this report.

RealNetworks, based in Seattle, Washington, can be reached
at +1-206-674-2700 or at http://www.real.com/. Microsoft, in
Redmond, Washington, can be reached at +1-425-882-0808 or
via the Web at http://www.microsoft.com.

-- 

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