[Fmpro] Protection Debates Continue; Questions, Not Answers, Pervade

[Dana from Serious Vanity Music]

Protection Debates Continue; Questions, Not Answers, Pervade

Permalink: http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/031407drm

Protection debates continued Wednesday at the Digital Media Summit in Los 
Angeles, though more questions than answers remained.  In the music realm, a 
sense of futility often hangs over such debates, especially alongside a 
massive and continued culture of free file-sharing.  Hollywood is playing 
with some more time, though a technology time bomb is ticking ever more 
loudly.  The growing influence of the BitTorrent protocol could bring 
Napster-like chaos to the front door of major studios, and potentially 
ignite an incredibly disruptive period ahead.

That adds some urgency to the Hollywood debate, though broad and effective 
solutions are difficult to craft.  Regardless, the music business is 
offering some powerful lessons to the film industry.  The first comes from 
the rather acrimonious relationship between labels and Apple.  Ronald 
Wheeler, senior vice president of Content Protection at Fox Entertainment 
Group, highlighted a well-evolved Hollywood release window - one that 
includes theater, DVD, and pay-per-view options - all of which are reliant 
upon a proper protection framework.  But a closed system like the one 
offered by Apple is not the approach that Wheeler prefers to protect that 
carefully-constructed business architecture.  "The actual interest of the 
studio is to have the maximum flexibility for our product in the market," 
Wheeler noted.

A similar sentiment has been expressed by major label executives, though the 
current terrain is increasingly characterized by silos, not broad protection 
systems.  That works well for users that play in a single sandbox - for 
example, iPod+iTunes - though larger usage snafus are always a threat.  That 
is helping to cool Hollywood support for the iTunes Store, which has 
struggled to convince major studios to jump on board.

Ultimately, consumers will demand complete flexibility, part of a larger 
ownership expectation, and free formats often answer that call.  A 
controlled system would ideally offer similar freedoms.  "Can we create an 
environment for people to move things around?" asked Sean Downey, global 
client director at Verisign.  But broad architectures undoubtedly raise 
coordination and implementation potholes, even if larger standards are in 
place.  "You are only as strong as your weakest link," mused Shawn Ambwani, 
vice president of Business Development at Intertrust.  For Steve Jobs, the 
chaos of maintaining standards across a broad number of partners is 
unappealing, and a chief reason why the FairPlay protection system has not 
been licensed.

Story by editor Paul Resnikoff, on location in Los Angeles.



Dana Detrick-Clark
Serious Vanity Music
http://www.seriousvanity.com