Submitted byFemina:
Rightscom (www.rightscom.com), the strategic consultancy for the management of digital content, today announces the publication of a white paper on the MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) Rights Expression Language (REL), one of the cornerstones of the MPEG-21 Multimedia Framework standard.
Trading in intellectual property rights will be the key driver for generating maximum revenues from the exploitation of digital technology on networks. The importance of effective security for digital content on networks is well understood. However, content consumers will not be encouraged to purchase digital content unless the offering itself is attractive. Without a technology that enables content owners to package their content and sell it using a wide variety of business models '“ outright sale, rental, subscription, bundling and value added purchase '“ content offers will remain basic. In addition, rights owners need to know that their rights can be packaged with machine-readable licences, guaranteed to be ubiquitous, unambiguous and secure over any digital network. The MPEG REL makes all this possible.
Based on XrML created by digital rights management (DRM) technology provider ContentGuard, the MPEG REL was developed for the music and audio-visual industries to create a permission language that defines a content consumer's usage rights. It has already been adopted as the basis for technologies in other content sectors, such as publishing. The Open eBook Forum (www.openebook.org) is creating its own 'Rights Grammar" based on the REL for securing rights in the distribution of ebooks, which is intended to be interoperable with the MPEG specification. This holds out the possibility that, in the future, different content sectors using different DRM technologies will be able to work together on the basis of a single REL.
Chris Barlas, Senior Consultant at Rightscom, has been pivotal in the development of the MPEG REL and has authored the white paper. 'The MPEG REL is a critical building block of the DRM toolkit," Chris said. 'It provides content owners with the means to create effective licences that can be interpreted by all value chain members. For implementers, it provides a single means to secure digital content across different platforms, whether online, mobile or TV. And for consumers, it promises more interesting content offers, with the ability to link to related promotions."
'The MPEG-21 Rights Expression Language '“ A White Paper" is available free of charge and can be downloaded from http://www.rightscom.com/files/MPEG21_RELwhite_paper.pdf
About Rightscom
Rightscom is a strategic consultancy for the management of digital content. The company provides solutions for the management and trading of intellectual property assets in digital environments. It offers high-level consultancy on the operational, technical, commercial and regulatory processes needed for successful implementation of profitable content-rich digital commerce strategies. With backgrounds in Rights Societies, as well as in the publishing, music and telecommunications industries, Rightscom's consultants have extensive expertise in rights network infrastructures, rights licensing, business modelling, metadata processes and Digital Rights Management technologies. Rightscom's consultants play prominent roles in international standards initiatives such as MPEG and OeBF, giving them unique insight into the issues that will determine the successful technologies of the future.
Rightscom's clients include major rights holder organisations, technology companies and service providers, as well as Government organisations and NGOs.
For more information on Rightscom, please visit www.rightscom.com
For more information on MPEG, please visit www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/index.htm
Source: Rightscom
