Protecting the rights to intellectual property and digital content, whether distributed via a physical (CD, DVD) or virtual medium (telecommunications and distribution networks) lies at the heart of a battle whose outcome will have implications for all players.1.
Digital distribution and protection against unauthorised copying
• Usages have moved into the digital era: copying, transferring, recording, handling, exchanging etc.
• Are digital breaches that enable unrestricted content handling being eradicated?
• Is digital rights management a condition for the equitable development of the virtual content distribution market?
• Technical protection measures versus the right to private copying, or how to protect rights holders and consumers?2.
DRM offerings
• DRM market confronted by very diverse players’ strategies.
• Will IT and consumer electronics players continue to pursue a strategy conflicting with rights holders’ interests?
• DRM interoperability, a difficult target to achieve for some, a reality for the world of mobile telecommunications3.
Virtual distribution: challenges and opportunities
• The music sector, peer-to-peer’s first victim, is now a pioneer in virtual content distribution.
• Ensuring effective content protection, a precondition to deploying virtual film distribution offerings.4.
Towards the co-existence of multiple models?
• The horizontal CD/DVD model combined with protection measures against copying.
• A vertical model related to pay television, video and music.
• The future of the MP3 model and of DIVX to some degree.
• Is a horizontal model linked to mobile telephony emerging?5.
Players
• Adobe Systems
• Apple
• Beep Science
• Blu Ray
• Coral
• End2End
• Macrovision
• Microsoft
• NDS
• OMA
• Philips
• Real Networks
• SealedMedia
• Sony
• SunnComm
• TCG
• Verisign
• …