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RPT-Electronics groups pursue anti-piracy software link

Tuesday 4 October 2005, 1:13am EST


AMSTERDAM, Oct 3 (Reuters) - The world's four biggest consumer electronics companies predicted on Monday they will introduce products in 2006 with anti-piracy software that is based on an open standard which is fully interoperable.

The four firms, Japan's Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Panasonic-brand owner Matsushita Electric Industrial (6752.T: Quote, Profile, Research), South Korea's Samsung Electronics (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) and Dutch Philips Electronics (PHG.AS: Quote, Profile, Research), announced in January they would start using a common method to protect digital music and video against piracy and illegal copying.

The initiative is called Marlin JDA.

"The Marlin JDA anticipates that the first Marlin-based devices and services will enter the market in 2006," the group said in a statement, while announcing that software developers will now have access to the digital rights management (DRM) specifications.

Interoperability between anti-piracy software does not exist at the moment. Songs bought in Sony's Connect store on the Internet, for example, can only be played on portable music players from Sony or companies that license its DRM system.

Digital encoding and decoding formats also differ per store, with Apple (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) using AAC in its iTunes Music Store and Microsoft (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) using Windows Media. The lack of interoperability slows down the success of digital entertainment and the subsequent sales of devices.

Those companies that do not offer their own protection system, as Sony does, have to choose sides and license someone else's DRM system for inclusion into products.

Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research), for instance, is including Microsoft DRM into a range of new phones in development.

Intertrust Technologies, a small United States-based company which owns many of the crucial patents for digital anti-piracy protection, is also part of the Marlin alliance.

The technology can be used in all products that get their content via the Internet, broadcast or mobile phone networks.

The Marlin-based DRM systems will be offered alongside existing systems, but senior Sony executives have said in the past they favour interoperability in order to accelerate sales of digital electronics.



© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved

http://today.reuters.com/business/newsArticle.aspx?type=consumerProducts&storyID=nL04190247