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Leading Entertainment, Consumer Electronics and Technology Companies and Organizations Support ISO Rights Expression Language Standard

Los Angeles, CA (ots)

Agnostic Media, Inc., Content Directions,
Inc., ContentGuard, Inc., Content Reference Forum, DMDsecure,
EDItEUR, GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies, IFPI, Lydia, Inc.,
the Motion Picture Association of America, Microsoft, Navio, Inc.,
NTT, OverDrive, Inc., Ramp^Rate, the Recording Industry Association
of America, Rightscom, RightsLine, Inc., SAMSUNG Electronics Co.,
Ltd., SyncCast, TranTech, Inc., Universal Music Group, VeriSign, Inc.
and Warner Bros. welcome the approval by the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) of the MPEG REL, its first
digital rights management (DRM) standard.
ISO MPEG REL is an XML-based Rights Expression Language used to
specify terms and conditions for the authorized distribution and use
of any digital content. This rich language will be used not only in
the entertainment industry, but also by enterprises and individuals
to enable the authorized distribution and persistent protection of
valuable data and content in accordance with privacy and
confidentiality requirements.
ISO MPEG REL is the first in a set of DRM industry standards to be
established by ISO and is an important step forward in building
worldwide, robust trust ecosystems for digital content. Other
technologies being standardized include metadata, asset
identification and aspects of security, protection and trust
management.
"If DRM technologies are going to proliferate -- by helping ensure
that creators are compensated and consumers can use that content in
legitimate ways -- broadly accepted industry standards for
interoperability are crucial," said Mike McGuire, research director
with GartnerG2's Media team. "The ISO MPEG REL standard is an
important milestone for the future of DRM and digital content
delivery."
Brad Hunt, CTO for the Motion Picture Association of America
remarked, "The motion picture industry is committed to and
participates in the MPEG-21 standards activities that are focused on
building cross-industry consensus around important international
standards such as the REL and the Rights Data Dictionary (RDD), key
components in facilitating DRM interoperability."
"IFPI supports the development of open, interoperable standards as
a way to get more music to more consumers in more legal and flexible
ways," said Paul Jessop, CTO of IFPI. "The MPEG REL can be a great
tool to enable this and IFPI applauds all those who worked with us to
bring this standard into being."
Since 1988 MPEG has produced several key standards including
MPEG-2, which helped advance interoperability in the delivery and
consumption of multimedia entertainment over the Internet and through
electronic devices. Today, an overwhelming majority of all video
content, whether for entertainment or the corporate enterprise, uses
MPEG standards.
Started in 2001, the ISO MPEG REL standard is a critical component
of the MPEG-21 Multimedia Framework, the next key set of standards
which will enable participants in the digital content value-chain to
give consumers greater flexibility and access to digital content.
Work on the ISO MPEG REL continues in various industry venues to
define specific business terms, using this REL to support new usage
models in areas such as: Web services, education, mobile, security,
publishing, media and entertainment.
"A clear and effective means of communicating the usage rights for
digital content is the critical foundation for creating the broadest
range of choice for consumers," said Chris Cookson, CTO, Warner Bros.
"We welcome the approval of this standard."
"An ISO standard like the MPEG REL will enhance industry growth.
Standards will help us get down to the serious business of selling
the music people love with usage rules that are consistent,
unambiguous and consumer friendly," said Larry Kenswil, president,
Universal Music Group, eLabs. "UMG has been an active participant in
the development of the MPEG REL. From the outset, we have been
involved in the rigorous process used to build consensus that
balances the needs of consumers and other stakeholders with rights
holders' desire to offer unique digital business models."
The ISO MPEG REL standard:
--  Supports a wide variety of business models in the digital
content distribution value-chain independent of content type or
industry
--  Provides an extremely flexible authorization model to
describe what the consumer or user is permitted to do with the
content
--  Is independent of formats, products, security technology or
other DRM system components
--  Enables automated multi-tier distribution of digital content
while protecting the rights of the content owners and the interests
of the users
--  Is a precise, unambiguous, machine-readable language that can
be used in conjunction with other industry standards, including those
addressing Web services
--  Is ready for immediate implementation to support digital
content sales or the distribution of enterprise information.
"An international standard for rights expression means that
business rules can be expressed flexibly and consistently," remarked
Dr. Leonardo Chiariglione, digital media strategist and convenor of
MPEG. "This is an important result towards the goal of giving
end-users the ability to enjoy content on a plethora of devices, in
new and flexible offerings, while respecting the economic structure
of the content value chain. The MPEG REL standard is one of the first
realizations of the twenty-first century vision of the multimedia
framework which enables unfettered trade in digital content."
More information about MPEG and the MPEG REL can be found at
www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/ and at http://www.iso.ch/. Additional
quotes from the supporters named in this release can be found below
the media contact information.
ISO MPEG-REL INDUSTRY SUPPORTERS
VeriSign, Inc.
http://www.verisign.com/
"For any technology to achieve its true potential, there must be
a fundamental shift to open standards that unleashes its full
potential. The completion of the ISO MPEG REL standard is a welcome
development in the push to promote interoperability of authorizations
across participants in the digital content industry," said Dr. Thomas
Hardjono, principal scientist, VeriSign, Inc. "The ISO MPEG REL
standard will enable ISVs to integrate finer levels of data
management for uses such as intellectual property protection. The
standardization of the MPEG REL by the ISO allows VeriSign as a
service provider in the content management industry to build-out our
rights-management infrastructure based on open standards."
TranTech, Inc.
http://www.tran-tech.com
"As a systems integrator to the US government, TranTech is firmly
committed to using international standards," said Mark Wells,
director of technology, TranTech. "The MPEG REL comes at an opportune
time for us. Our customers have many situations where the
distribution of rich media content needs to be carefully managed and
protected. The MPEG REL gives us the ability to successfully address
key DRM requirements defined by the Federal Government and we plan to
use it as part of our service/product offerings."
SyncCast
http://www.synccast.com
"The availability of the ISO MPEG-REL standard is an important
step towards fixing the lack of interoperability and content
portability," said Lance Ware, CEO, SyncCast. "The bottom line is
that this standard will provide much needed flexibility to both
content owners and end-users alike. Content owners will be able to
sell content with fine grained business models while end-users will
be able to enjoy authorized content the way they want, regardless of
what technology is used to protect it."
RightsLine, Inc.
http://www.rightsline.com
"RightsLine is excited about the ratification of the ISO MPEG-REL
standard," said Ramond Haynes, executive vice president and CTO,
RightsLine. "This standard enables a precise means of expressing,
distributing and consuming authorizations. RightsLine will be
incorporating the ISO/MPEG-REL standard into our next version of the
Rights Intelligence System (RIS) application. This will allow us to
express rights and licenses to other systems in the digital content
supply chain, such as Digital Asset Management (DAM) and Digital
Rights Management (DRM) providers, using a standard that has been
accepted worldwide."
Rightscom
http://www.rightscom.com
"Rightscom, the London-based digital rights consultancy,
participates in the development of international standards for the
management and protection of rights for the benefit of both content
owners and consumers," said Chris Barlas, Rightscom senior
consultant. "The company welcomes the publication of this ISO
standard for a flexible and comprehensive rights expression language
which is supported by its own activity in the parallel MPEG
specification for a rights data dictionary."
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
http://www.riaa.org
"Exciting new business models for media distribution to consumers
can be successful only if a common language is spoken among networks,
systems and platforms," said Bruce Block, senior vice president for
technology at the Recording Industry Association of America. "The REL
recently adopted by MPEG is an example of a common language that
along with other tools can help ensure that consumers are able to
enjoy the media they acquire. This is an exciting development."
Ramp^Rate
http://www.ramprate.com
"Ramp^Rate strives to continually offer our customers the most
efficient IT advisory services possible, to increase ROI, save time
and overall costs when developing criteria, choosing and implementing
IT infrastructural solutions," said Anthony Greenberg, CEO,
Ramp^Rate. "In order to deliver, we must, as a company, continue to
innovate and implement the most up-to-date technology and adhere to
the most advanced standards and guidelines for handling sensitive
data, by working with our partners to adopt the ISO MPEG-REL we are
able to meet our clients' needs and ensure their information is
completely secure."
OverDrive, Inc.
http://www.overdrive.com
"Adoption and use of digital media will be greatly accelerated by
widespread support of the MPEG REL. MPEG REL is a powerful tool to
develop profitable business models for trusted licensing of
copyrighted material. ISO approval of this standard will result in
expanded opportunities for OverDrive to distribute digital materials
to consumers through retail, institutional and educational channels,"
stated Steve Potash, president and CEO of OverDrive, Inc.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation ("NTT")
http://www.ntt.co.jp
"NTT has a long history of supporting international standards and
is an active participant in many such efforts. We congratulate the
work of ISO and MPEG, and we welcome the publication of this
important DRM standard," said Noboru Sonehara, content commerce
project manager, NTT Cyber Solutions Laboratories.
Navio, Inc.
http://www.navio.com
"The ISO MPEG REL standard provides an interoperable and precise
means of expressing the rights that are distributed and consumed
throughout the digital content supply chain, and maps well to the
'digital title' technology we've developed over the past several
years," states Stefan Roever, president and CEO, Navio, Inc. "Navio
is an enterprise-grade, end-to-end ASP solution delivering commerce
in digital goods and services on any network-connected device,
including PC's, mobile devices and the retail POS. We're integrating
the ISO MPEG REL standard into the Navio Digital Card, Merchant and
Store applications and Digital Commerce Engine (DCE), giving
providers the ability to express open standard authorizations with
the confidence that they will be consumed in a consistent manner."
Microsoft (MSFT)
http://www.microsoft.com
"Microsoft evaluated several rights expression languages and found
the ISO MPEG REL uniquely capable as a rights expression language for
both digital works and distributed Web services," said John
Manferdelli, Microsoft's General Manager, Windows Security. "The
extensibility and rich semantics of the language make it well suited
to heterogeneous large-scale projects with demanding scalability
requirements, while its layered design supports portable devices
efficiently. This standard is an essential step towards
interoperability across a wide range of industries.
Lydia, Inc.
http://www.lydialearn.com
"The adoption of the MPEG REL as an ISO Standard is a critical
advance toward a secure global marketplace for digital learning
resources," stated Thomas Probert, PhD, president, Lydia, Inc. "The
use of MPEG REL engenders a trust fundamental to creative
collaboration and the impact on e-learning will be profound."
GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies
http://www.drmwatch.com
"Lack of interoperability among rights management systems is one
of the biggest factors slowing down the development of digital media
business models that are innovative, meet consumers' expectations for
usage rights and ease of use, and respect copyright," said Bill
Rosenblatt, president, GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies and
managing editor of Jupitermedia's DRM Watch. "Standards like the ISO
MPEG REL will make it easier for everyone in the digital media value
chain to provide these exciting new services for consumers at minimum
cost and assurance against obsolescence."
EDItEUR
http://www.editeur.org
Brian Green, General Manager of EDItEUR, the e-commerce body for
books and serials, welcomed publication of the REL saying, "The books
and serials sectors regard the MPEG Rights Expression Language (REL)
and Rights Data Dictionary (RDD) as essential tools for managing
rights in the digital publishing environment."
DMDsecure
http://www.dmdsecure.com
"Using international standards which level the playing field,
technology vendors can compete on the merits, service providers can
gain flexibility for their offerings and consumers have additional
choice," said Rist Brouwer, CEO, DMDsecure. "The ISO standard MPEG
REL is a welcome sign that the market for legitimate digital content
is maturing. Digital content distribution can take place without
restrictions on the type of delivery method, whether over broadband,
IP or wireless, and this is borne out by DMDsecure's product
offerings. DMDsecure will continue to be a supporter and work towards
implementing DRM standards which enable interoperability."
Content Reference Forum
http://www.crforum.org
"We believe that the proliferation of open standards helps
facilitate interoperability and stimulates a more robust
marketplace," said Albhy Galuten, chairman of the Content Reference
Forum. "The vision of the CRF is for consumers to enjoy and
redistribute content with commercial terms beneficial to all members
of the value chain and the MPEG REL is an important component to help
that vision become a reality. The CRF already uses the MPEG REL and a
number of other standards in our specifications. The Content
Reference Forum welcomes the official announcement of the ISO MPEG
REL standard."
ContentGuard, Inc.
http://www.contentguard.com
"Broad agreement on deployable standards is important for the
growth of the digital content market," said Michael Miron,
co-chairman and CEO of ContentGuard. "To this end, the industry has
experienced some important milestones over recent weeks -- the
creation of an ISO industry standard rights expression language, the
ISO MPEG REL, and the endorsement of that standard by key industry
participants from a broad range of sectors. We now need to work
together to take the next step, incorporating the MPEG REL into
digital content distribution systems to help make both content owners
and end users comfortable with legitimate digital content
distribution as the norm."
Content Directions, Inc.
http://www.contentdirections.com
"Content Directions is excited to be helping bring together two
crucial standards for online content, MPEG-21 and the Digital Object
Identifier (DOI). These standards are essential to bridging the gap
between a user-friendly, convenient customer experience and the
legitimate needs of rightsholders," remarked David Sidman, president,
Content Directions, Inc. "Through its dedication to building
practical, real-world applications based on these standards, first in
the publishing industry and more recently in the music industry,
Content Directions hopes to accelerate the uptake of these standards
among all stakeholders -- consumers, rights holders, technology
vendors, and other value-chain participants such as aggregators,
distributors and retailers."

Contact:

Gina Giachetti
Text 100
Phone: 415-593-8432
E-Mail: ginag@text100.com

Bradley Matthews
Text 100
Phone: 415-593-8477
E-Mail: bradleym@text100.com