MESSAGE
| DATE | 2004-03-29 |
| FROM | Ruben I Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Microsoft and DRM
|
Microsoft Remakes DRM for MSN Music Service By David Worthington,
BetaNews March 29th, 2004, 7:20 PM
BetaNews has learned that Microsoft is devising a new digital rights
management (DRM) technology that, it has indicated, will be baked into
its upcoming MSN Music service.
Although only a handful of details are known at this time, it is clear
that the MSN Music offering will be tightly integrated into Windows
Media Player and limit its playback support to Windows Media Audio,
which already incorporates an existing DRM framework.
Published reports have indicated that Microsoft is busy readying a
secure clock DRM technology dubbed "Janus." Janus enables songs
distributed under a subscription model to be transferred to portable
devices, with a built in "time bomb" that enables songs to expire in the
event that a customer's subscription lapses.
"Microsoft already has indicated subscription content portability would
be one of the design goals of Portable Media Center and that a new
Windows Media Player version would come later in the year. Given these
knowns, it's a fair bet Microsoft will make changes to its DRM that
would support subscription content. That would let consumers obtain
subscription content from, say, a Napster and move it to a portable
device, as well as listen on a PC," remarked senior Jupiter Research
analyst Joe Wilcox.
Windows based Portable Media Centers -- formerly code-named Media2Go --
are scheduled to arrive in Europe before the end of the year. By
combining Windows Media Player 9 with its new "Smart Sync" technology,
Microsoft has enabled Portable Media Center devices to transfer audio
and video content from the desktop.
It is unknown whether the same technology will be put to use in the MSN
Music service, but Microsoft must still clear the hurdle device
synchronization poses. According to Jupiter Research, synchronization is
one of the top three features customers look for in portable music
players. Microsoft has hinted that it will leverage its software
portfolio to tether MSN Music snugly into its product mix.
Late last week, Redmond offered music industry bigwigs an exclusive
sneak peak at an alpha version of the service. To secure a steady stream
of content for its customers, Microsoft is courting a broad range of
record labels and music industry interests to build what it promises
will be the most comprehensive music catalog online.
While no specific timeframe has been set for the store's grand opening,
an MSN spokesperson said that the company expects to launch the service
this fall at the earliest, with at least 700,000 tunes.
Like Apple before it, Microsoft has chosen to embrace the proprietary
approach to music sharing. Songs downloaded from MSN Music will be
encoded exclusively in the Windows Media Audio format. Apple's iTunes
software uses a specialized version of AAC packaged with its own rights
management technology dubbed "FairPlay." Microsoft had previously
criticized Apple for bucking standards and blazing its own path.
A Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews that its decision to utilize
Windows Media Player 9 Series and its codecs has permitted users to
choose from a pool of over 50 portable devices that are already on the
market. Likewise, most online music stores including Napster and
MusicMatch support the format. This, Microsoft argues, offers customers
more choice.
"I chuckle at Microsoft's contention that somehow the WMA world is more
open than Apple's iTunes, iPod and Fairplay AAC. Both companies' formats
use proprietary technology. It's true more stores and players support
WMA, but I wouldn't consider AOL and HP, two companies offering iTunes
Music Store to their customers, as small-fry support," quipped
Jupiter\x{2019}s Wilcox. The Apple-AOL-HP is formidable support for
iTunes, iPod and FairPlay-AAC." -- __________________________ Brooklyn
Linux Solutions
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like
Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI
Safir 1998
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://fairuse.nylxs.com
http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Consulting http://www.inns.net <-- Happy
Clients http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive or stories and
articles from around the net http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/downtown.html -
See the New Downtown Brooklyn....
1-718-382-0585
____________________________
NYLXS: New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
NYLXS is a trademark of NYLXS, Inc
|
|
