Digital rights technology sparks interoperability concerns

Digital media is a killer application for the Internet. However, concerns about the technology have limited the commercial distribution of digital video, audio, and images. Most notably, content producers worry that purchasers will copy and give away or resell their products in ways that the providers don't want and that violate their licenses. In light of this, companies have developed digital rights management (DRM) technology for products and media players to let content producers enforce licensing restrictions by limiting the use of their materials. However, this has led to a critical problem for the digital-media industry: most DRM technologies are not interoperable. Most vendors have created proprietary technologies not available for license or use by third-party vendors, thereby making interoperability difficult. With digital content becoming a big business, the industry is concerned about interoperability. A series of initiatives are under way to address DRM interoperability.