Seventeen tech giants set standards for sharing music and pictures

June 26, 2003

Once again GristyMcFisty used our news submit to tell us that last
Tuesday seventeen of the largest computer, consumer electronics and mobile
phone companies have agreed on common standards to enable
consumers to easily swap digital music and pictures at home:

Companies in the Digital Home Working Group (DHWG)
include Hewlett-Packard, International Business Machines, Microsoft,
Intel, Gateway, Nokia, Sony, Matsushita, Sharp, Samsung Electronics,
Thomson and Philips.

"A seamless environment for sharing and growing new
digital media and content services will make home networking transparent,
so consumers can more easily create, manage, access and share digital
content," the group said in a statement.

Products expected in 2004

The first products that are compatible with the new
standard will be on the market by the second half of 2004, said Cesar
Vorhringer, chief technology officer at Philips's consumer electronics
unit, Europe's largest consumer electronics group.

Supporting open standards

The working group had already agreed to make certain
technologies de facto standards. WiFi, for instance, will be set as a
wireless standard for the physical network, while other technologies have
been selected for network protocols, device control and digital formats.

One element they have not yet agreed upon is how to set
standards for digital rights management (DRM), which is aimed at
protecting copyrighted media, such as music and
films.

Currently there are too many standards for swapping digital content. Let's hope the
companies can agree on one standard that will indeed make the life of us
consumers a little easier.

Source: CNN.com