The European Commission (EC) is preparing to launch a consultatio...
The European Commission (EC) is preparing to launch a consultation on whether European Union-wide policies are needed to spur development of digital rights management (DRM) technologies in Europe. The consultation will be based on a report issued this month…
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by the EC’s High Level Group (HLG) on DRM, whose participants include content providers, rights- holders, publishers, broadcasters, mobile and fixed operators, equipment manufacturers, DRM solutions providers, researchers and consumers. The report reflects consensus among stakeholders on DRM and interoperability; private copying levies and DRM; and migration to legitimate online services. The HLG report acknowledged that “market forces are the primary driver of DRM and interoperability solutions, but that time is needed.” Nevertheless, it said, action is required on several fronts: (1) Industry work further on open cross-platform DRM systems. (2) The EC must push for deployment of open standards by continuing to support the work of relevant standards bodies. (3) European Union (EU) member states must ensure that DRM standards aren’t undermined by noncompliance and that they have effective antipiracy laws in place. Market development of DRM is at an early stage, though technological development is fairly advanced, the HLG said. Most consumers lack devices equipped to make use of services offered through DRM, it said, and industries have developed systems based on their own specific characteristics. There’s wide consensus that open standards offer the most realistic chance for true cross-platform interoperability of devices, the group said. But DRM encompasses security aspects as well as interoperability, the HLG said, and “it is challenging to devise open standard solutions that can simultaneously ensure that security is not eroded.”