Sun Adds 'Commons' Touch To DRM StandardsSun Adds 'Commons' Touch To DRM Standards

Dream also includes Java Stream Assembly, an application programming interface designed to reduce the complexity in building and managing video streams delivered over networks, and Sun Streaming Server, designed to serve standards-compliant audio and video streams over IP networks using open-standard protocols, including RTP and RTSP.

DRM-Opera and Java Stream Assembly have since Sunday been available from Sun's Java.net site because both programs are written in Java, while Sun Streaming Server, written using the C programming language, is available through the Sourceforge.net open-source repository.

In addition to the three software projects already available through Open Media Commons, Sun plans to provide more Dream components in coming months, including a key management server that lets users create, store, and exchange keys used for public-key cryptography, a policy server, and a connector that can be used between the Sun Streaming Server and other streaming servers.

Although at first it seems strange for Sun to be the one trying to bring together multiple players in the content creation and distribution markets, the company actually has huge stake in the future of digital content. "We've enabled close to 1 billion Java-based cell phones," says Glenn Edens, a senior VP with Sun and the director of Sun Labs. "We've also created a Java software stack that we sell to virtually every telecom carrier. Worldwide, content distribution happens through mobile devices."

Sun also is interested in changing the way conditional-access software allows access to content. "Today, they're based on the concept that you license content to a device, but our belief is that if you're going to do any licensing, it should be based on the identity of individuals," Edens says.

Sun's biggest challenge is getting a critical mass of open-source software developers, record labels, content providers, and device manufacturers to participate in the Open Media Commons community. Adding to this challenge is the presence of other industry consortia, including Coral, a cross-industry group formed by Hewlett-Packard, Intertrust, Sony, and others to promote interoperability between digital-rights management technologies used in the consumer media market. "It's a very long road for Sun, and it's got a lot of potholes in it," McGuire says. "You start getting multiple standards and groups, and I start to get worried."

Edens notes that while organizations such as Coral already exist, they address a small piece of what Open Media Commons will do. In fact, software created out of the Coral effort is based on Web services and could integrate with software developed by Sun's project, he adds.

Sun's role with the Liberty Alliance, which includes more than 150 companies sharing standards for identity management, shows that the company can have some success with large industry organizations. Edens acknowledges that the Liberty Alliance began without much support, but he also notes that the effort has since met with great success. "We started from scratch with Liberty with a set of principles that resonated with everyone as well as a relentless desire to make it succeed," he says.

Although it's too early to tell whether Sun will succeed with its Open Media Commons effort, there is definitely a need for some form of digital-rights management standards. Says McGuire: "No one will want islands of content on portable devices that don't work on their PCs or on emerging devices."