DECE settles on UltraViolet media DRM, still lacks Apple
updated 08:30 am EDT, Tue July 20, 2010
DECE gets closer to launch with name, new partners
The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem edged closer to an actual launch today by settling on a new name for its copy protection scheme, UltraViolet (UV), and unveiling new partners. In addition roughly 60 major electronics, content and software firms, the Internet media locker standard now has support from Korea's LG as well as the ARM chip designer Marvell and LOVEFiLM. The group now expects UV to enter the test phase later in the year.
The technology is designed to ease cross-portability of media across different devices while still giving the content providers security against easy piracy. With UV, a customer can buy or rent content such as a movie and have access to it just by signing into a digital rights locker that, if necessary, lets the owner download the content again.
Notably absent from the group are Apple and Disney. The studio is developing its own equivalent, Keychest, and may have had support from Apple for its development. Apple chief Steve Jobs sits on Disney's Board of Directors and is the company's largest individual shareholder.
In recent years, Apple has insisted that it be in control of most technology that determines its fate and has been extremely resistant to having to use copy protection it doesn't own. It prefers to go without copy protection altogether rather than use a standard like UV, which would force it to wait on agreements with dozens of other firms to act on changes. Apple is rumored to have its own cloud-based iTunes movie service in development and would likely use it to drive customers to the upcoming Apple TV as well as the iPad and other video-friendly Apple mobile devices.
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