Digital rights management key to successful mobile entertainment services

An effective digital rights management (DRM) system will play a key role in the success of entertainment content in the mobile wireless space, a conference in Toronto earlier this month was told. While panelists in two sessions talked about the significant role DRM will play in the mobile content industry and how it will affect greater adoption of mobile entertainment, few solutions were proposed to address the thorny issue. Michael Doherty, VP of the North American telecoms practice at British research firm Ovum, explained during a session on Entertainment: The International Experience that revenue from mobile entertainment will likely be minimal until DRM is settled. "Until there is a robust DRM protocol or system in place, we don’t expect to see the full potential of some types of mobile entertainment to take off. And this is probably a year or two or three away," he said. Citing previous experiences in the Korean market, Doherty said the copyright and DRM issue had a negative impact on the use of mobile video-on-demand. Equally, DRM was a barrier to greater adoption of mobile music. Following the deployment of Ev-DO in Korea enabling video-on-demand to mobile, Doherty explained that there were content issues. "The whole content licensing system did prove to be a challenge for the Korean operators," he said, adding this is an issue that North American operators will have to follow. Nathalie Le Prohon, GM of Nokia Products Ltd. in Canada, said during another session that in the MMS world, digital rights will have to be dealt with. For all companies involved in the mobile content equation to be successful, DRM will need to be addressed. In an interview with Canadian NEW MEDIA after the session, Bill Dudley, senior product manager at InphoMatch, said his company’s business model can support DRM. InphoMatch acts as an intermediary between carriers and content, facilitating the exchange of content and can handle the complex relationship between content and carrier much easier than for each carrier to have to deal with relationships with a multitude of content providers. Steve Owen, of LogicaCMG, told a session on multimedia messaging services (MMS) that there are tools out there today for protecting content. There are forward-locking technologies that don’t allow for the forwarding of copyrighted content, he said, but this has also "stifled adoption" of the services. There are a number of different efforts being undertaken, he said, adding that the Open Mobile Alliance has proposed a fix that attaches a token to the content. Citing music content, he explained the token would allow the song to be uploaded onto only three separate MP3 players.

Digital rights management key to successful mobile entertainment services

News | 05/14/2004 4:00 am EDT

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