Key issues for the future of Digital Rights Management (DRM) are the question of proprietary versus “open” technologies, and whether governments should get involved, according to a new report from ABI Research. “We're at a very interesting crossroads right now,” says Vamsi Sistla, ABI's director of residential entertainment technologies. “Congress and industry leaders are having a healthy debate about the future course of action.”

Sistla cites iTunes and the iPod as an example. Apple gambled on a pay-per-song downloadable music model, wrapping the music files in a proprietary DRM format called FairPlay, and now enjoys at least 80 percent market share in this space, according to ABI.

Most industry leaders are adopting a “government hands off” attitude, but Sistla feels that other attempts at proprietary DRM schemes probably wouldn't succeed. “Apple [was] the first to offer such a service and the content industry didn't care if their DRM was proprietary. But DRM becomes critical once video, and sharing between STBs and portable devices, become a reality.”

Sistla adds that open standards and licensing fees are a much bigger issue in mobile communications than in the portable industry. “There are over 1.7 billion handset users out there, so you need to have some open standard to make it easy for content owners to forge relationships with service providers, equipment vendors and IC manufacturers. If proprietary standards remain, the industry will suffer from the added expense.”

ABI's study, Conditional Access & Digital Rights Management, offers comprehensive data on the penetration of emerging conditional access and digital rights management technologies, according to the company.

A related ABI report, Mobile Broadcast Video examines the issues surrounding video on mobile devices.

 
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