Sun Microsystems has launched an ambitious community project aimed at building a universal system of digital rights management based on “open source” software. The company has seeded its Open Media Commons (OMC) initiative by releasing Sun Labs Project DReaM (DRM/everywhere available) software under the CDDL (Common Development and Distribution License).

The OMC initiative was announced by Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, who delivered a keynote address at today's Progress and Freedom Foundation Aspen Summit.

Schwartz, a famous blogger, said that the increasingly participatory nature of news and other media has created “an incredible economic value waiting to be tapped.” At the same time, he characterized current DRM efforts as “clumsy, self-defeating Internet tollgates,” suggesting that “a federated DRM solution must be built by the community, for the community.”

Sun has seeded the OMC initiative by donating software created by Sun Labs as part of its Project DReaM. The software has been released under Sun's CDDL (Common Development and Distribution License), the same controversial license used in Sun's Open Solaris project. The CDDL was widely criticized when first submitted to the OSI for consideration as an “open source” license. It eventually gained OSI approval, but remains controversial, in part because it is incompatible with the GPL, the license under which the majority of open source software, including Linux, is distributed.

Project DReaM software released and slated for release includes:

• DRM-Opera — A DRM architecture implementing standardized interfaces and processes for the interoperability of DRM systems, independent of hardware, OS, and media formats. Will theoretically enable user-based rather than device-based license provision. The DRM-Opera homepage is currently a “new project” default template, suggesting the project may not be very far along.
• Java Stream Assembly — A cross-vendor plug-in architecture for broadcast, and on-demand media servers, JSA will be based on the Java Stream Assembly (JSR-158) API, and licensed under the CDDL.
• Sun Streaming Server (SSS) — Based on obsequium, a GPL-licensed software packaged targeting distributed radio stations. Obsequium supports multicast protocols including RTP and RTSP (which can be used with the Zinf player), as well as normal icecast streams. Sun says SSS complies with specifications defined by the 3GPP (Third-Generation Partner Program), an industry group promoting GSM/GPRS mobile phone interoperability, and ISMA (Internet Streaming Media Alliance), a group promoting Internet radio and TV.

Sun says it will share additional technologies with the OMC over time, including identity management technology derived from work done in concert with the Liberty Project, described as a group of more than 150 global organizations addressing the technical, business, and policy challenges around identity and identity-based Web services.

Schwartz concluded, “I urge [developers, managers, and politicians] to get involved in the debate before the goals of a few impede the possibility of long-term, sustained economic growth for everyone. We must find an open path forward.”

More information on the Open Media Commons can be found at here.

Another cross-vendor DRM initiative, the Marlin JDA (joint development initiative), was launched by a group of consumer electronics companies in January.

 
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