Open Media Commons: Open Source, royalty-free Internet standard
Sun raises curtain on Open Media Commons open source initiative,
calling for an open source, royalty-free Internet standard to
compensate rights-holders and stimulate innovation
Sun Microsystems President and Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Schwartz unveiled the Open Media Commons initiative, an open-source community project developing a royalty-free digital rights management standard. To further this goal, Schwartz called for immediate cross-industry collaboration in developing an open, safe and business-friendly approach to the free creation, duplication and distribution of digital content.
“We are entering the Participation Age — an age where individuals are creating and supplying the news as much as they are consuming it. Mobile phones play music and take pictures, high-quality video is delivered to almost any device on earth, and legitimate global P2P networks are being created that will transform the way we live,” said Schwartz. “The demand for new network services is exploding. Incredible economic value is waiting to be tapped, but we must not allow progress to be stifled by clumsy, self-defeating Internet tollgates in the form of a monolithic, closed digital rights management system.”
Schwartz continued, “The issue at hand is fair compensation without loss of fair use. The Open Media Commons is committed to creating an open network growth engine, all the while continuing to protect intellectual property in a manner that respects customer privacy, honors honest uses of media, and encourages participation and innovation.”
Laying the foundation for the Open Media Commons initiative, Sun will immediately share the entirety of its internal Sun Labs program Project DReaM (DRM/everywhere available) with the community under the OSI-approved Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL). Sun Labs Project DReaM consists of:
Sun plans to continue sharing technologies with the community over time and will also contribute its significant community leadership experience in the area of identity management, gained from its participation in the Liberty Alliance — a group of more than 150 global organizations united to address the technical, business and policy challenges around identity and identity-based Web services.
“We fundamentally believe that a federated DRM solution must be built by the community, for the community,” Schwartz continued. “And I urge those across the industry, be they in front of a development workstation or in an executive suite or walking the halls of Congress, to get involved in the debate before the goals of a few impede the possibility of long-term, sustained economic growth for everyone. We must find an open path forward, it’s in the economic self-interest of every one of us. And, after all, widespread and shared economic growth makes all progress possible.”
More information on the Open Media Commons can be found at http://www.openmediacommons.org/.
Source: Sun Press Release
Related:
>> Open-Source keeps me ‘coding fit’
>> Is OpenSource volunteer based or employee based?
>> The Flavors of Java Open Source
