Microsoft to Become Mobile DRM Standard?

An anonymous reader writes "It seems most of the media has missed the significance of Microsoft's recent partnership with DoCoMo to put Windows Media DRM on i-mode handsets. If all the i-mode players adopt Windows DRM, that gives Microsoft access to a significant chunk of the mobile market. Couple this with the more recent MTV Urge announcement and you've got Microsoft set to own the DRM space - at least on mobile devices - by stealth. Telecoms.com has a take on the situation, but also reveals that the GSM Association may be on the verge of recommending Windows mobile DRM to all its members. Puts the French copyright and DRM legislation in a whole new perspective - interoperability issues can be solved by removing the competition."

Neither M$ nor *AA get it -The quest for "IT!"

[Anonymous Coward]

""It seems most of the media has missed the significance of Microsoft's recent partnership with DoCoMo to put Windows Media DRM on i-mode handsets. If all the i-mode players adopt Windows DRM, that gives Microsoft access to a significant chunk of the mobile market. "

They get "it" just fine. Question is; do you get "it"?

Re:Neither M$ nor *AA get it . . .

[PFI_Optix]

DRM is far from dead. Right now, they're trying to make it harder to create, distribute, and find pirated material implementing those unfettered formats. What they need to be doing is making DRM-enabled content affordable, accessible, and useable.

What the industry needs is good, common-sense DRM. Today's DRM doesn't allow for things going public domain. It's not flexible enough to allow users to do what they want (and is legal) with what they paid for. They are presently erring on the side of profit...that's not going to work with consumers long-term.

Re:Neither M$ nor *AA get it . . .

[DragonWriter]

DRM is dead. Unfettered formats exist and are in widespread use. Try as they might, they can't unring the bell.

Maybe so, in the long run, though I'm not as optimistic as you are. In the short-run, the people who make lots of money controlling distribution of content like DRM, and will do everything they can to get it adopted in order to continue to profit from that control, and lots of people will go along because it will be the easiest way to get access to the most popular media content.

Microsoft mounting the wrong horse

[Starker_Kull]

Boy, they know how to pick a loser. Assuming the carriers go along with this, all Microsoft will have is domination over a standard that nobody will want to use. DRM is annoying enough when it comes to file transfers on computers. Can you imagine how annoying it will be with phones? Will your files survive your phone dropping into the toilet? Or will they be easily transferable to a new phone with the same mobile number assigned to it? You know the answer - and of course, you won't be able to redownload files you've paid for.

It's interesting to see what they waste brainspan and dollars on.

Re:A _standard_ for DRM?!

[Tx]

While standard is all about being open, fair and compatible with others

Well, in reality it's just about the last of those three. But hey, one out of three aint bad ;)

That's Fine....

[eander315]

Use all the Microsoft DRM you'd like, I'm not buying that device.

Re:Oh no!

[macpeep]

I think the success of the iTunes Music Store has shown that people don't care too much about DRM as long as it is transparent enough. Look at what URGE will offer. 9.95 for unlimited music. Anything you want. For those not willing to break the law to pirate music, or too lazy to do so, or both (this third category includes me) this is an awesome deal. For just 10 bucks a month, it's as if my music collection was essentially infinite. I don't care if I don't "own" the music. Why should I? For movies, it makes even more sense (because the replay value is much lower than for music) to have some sort of subscription-type system so that you just pay a flat fee per month and have unlimited access to unlimited movies. But to have such systems (either music or movies) be viable, it has to be protected so that you can't just have one person be a subscriber and then that person can copy the stuff to the whole world. That's just a fact of life. Because people can't be trusted NOT to copy, there has to be some system to prevent it. Or at least prevent it for the "casual user" that won't go jump hoops to crack it. I think it was Steve Jobs who said "to keep the honest people honest".

The future will have DRM in the main-stream whether you like it or not. Of course you can always choose to get your media through some other channels, but if you think that "5 people" (obviously you didn't mean it literally) will be using DRM at the end of 2006, then you are seriously mistaken.

Peppe

Re:Neither M$ nor *AA get it . . .

[JWW]

Maybe so, in the long run, though I'm not as optimistic as you are. In the short-run, the people who make lots of money controlling distribution of content like DRM, and will do everything they can to get it adopted in order to continue to profit from that control, and lots of people will go along because it will be the easiest way to get access to the most popular media content.

And as they try and invent this future they miss out on the massive amount of money they could make by just giving up on DRM and creating a fair market for digital music. Their insistance to DRM will ensure that illegal copies survive. They have to make illegal downloading not worth it in comparison and the wasy to do that is to make legal downloading easier, not harder (read DRM enbumbered up the wazoo).

There already are DRM standards "in the wild".

[Hast]

Funny thing is that the article seem to miss one small point. They talk about how Microsoft *may* become a standard on DoCoMos FOMA networks. The thing is that the OMA DRM specification already exist and run on millions of phones in Europe. (And anywhere else which has GSM/UMTS phones.)

I fail to see how this new architecture can hope to jump in and replace something which has already been in use for a couple of years.

Of course a lot of people probably don't realise that they have DRM on their phones.

Leveraging monopolies, to create more monopolies

[guidryp]

This really isn't a surprise. Just business as usual. Microsoft has vast monopoly power that will allow it to gain monopolies in any emerging computing connected/related device.

PDA's previously owned by Palm, will soon be a microsoft monopoly.

Gaming. Sony faces the biggest threat ever and yet managed to make incredibly stupid moves that will make the move to microsoft gaming domination even faster. Microsoft is using it's clout with gaming house/publishers and outright buying them if all else fails. The end is microsoft will dominate console gaming. Only when is the question, not if.

Media. Microsoft is agressively pusing it's DRM/codecs everywhere. It managed to get it's codecs into both HD-DVD and Blu Ray standards. It has just about every online media shop except Itunes. Itunes is an anomoly and it will be interesting to see how weathers the microsoft onslaught. I predict in 10 years. More than half the music sold will be using microsoft DRM.

Re:ACK!

[Ckwop]

Microsoft, DRM and Standard in the same sentence!

Dude, be careful with your words, I almost had a heart attack...

Ahh yes, Microsoft must love this. This is the one standard where breaking interoperability is a feature rather than a bug!

Simon

Re:ACK!

[glesga_kiss]

The sad thing is, you could say the exact same things about the DRM in the iPod:

"It seems most of the media has missed the significance of Apple Music's recent partnership with Apples hardware division to put Fairplay on iPods. If all the iPod players adopt Fairplay, that gives Apple access to a significant chunk of the portable player market. Couple this with the more recent insert any iTunes promo here announcement and you've got Apple set to own the DRM space - at least on portable players - by stealth."

And this has come to pass. Apple good, Microsoft bad. Linux better! Nice and easy to remember I suppose.

And a word on the M$ DRM...don't panic. M$ have millions of mobile devices out there already on three separate OS platforms; Windows Mobile 2002/2003, and Windows Mobile 5. Each of these operating systems ships with Windows Media Player as standard, and can play wma/wmv files. HOWEVER, and this is a BIG however; it doesn't work with the Windows Media DRM. Not even in the slightest. If it has DRM of any form it won't play. Anyone marketing WMA media for mobile devices is targeting a tiny marketplace. And they aren't all that popular as a platform anyway, compared to other popular phone product lines. This future DRM-ed device is in a market that is a subset of a subset.

So, I wouldn't worry about MS owning the mobile media space any time soon.

Re:Neither M$ nor *AA get it . . .

[urbaneassault]

It may hold no water on technical details, but it certainly holds water if the mere act of unencrypting DRM is illegal, which I think is the point the grandparent was trying to make...

Re:Well, that's alright then

[gwait]

Ah well, it's not that bad, so you won't be able to pirate Britney Spears's comeback CD in a couple years.

Buy a guitar, read a book, go to a coffee shop and hang out with freinds etc.
Many people commenting in this topic have realized that all this DRM crap is waking us up to the fact that we don't need any of these products at all.
Want to screw up my television watching habits with DRM? Fine, I'll turn the stupid thing off and take the dog to the park for a walk!