The backlash against proposed rates to license digital rights management technology continued this week, with a powerful group of wireless carriers threatening to abandon the open-standard system.
The GSM Association blasted royalties for the technology proposed earlier this year by the MPEG Licensing Authority for anti-piracy software developed by the Open Mobile Alliance. MPEG LA’s plan called for phone manufacturers to pay $1 per device and for operators to pay a percentage of every consumer download to license the software.
The industry association claims more than 300 carriers and regulatory bodies. MPEG LA has pooled patents owned by DRM companies InterTrust and ContentGuard, as well as consumer electronics firms Sony Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. and Philips.
Calling the licensing clearinghouse “impractical, excessive and short-sighted,” GSMA Chief Executive Officer Rob Conway said operators couldn’t recoup the licensing fees by simply passing the cost along to customers.
Last week, The Mobile Entertainment Forum became the first wireless association to publicly protest the rates, saying the proposed plan threatens the economic viability of the industry it is designed to protect. MPEG LA responded by saying the controversy highlights how important open-standard DRM is to the wireless data market.
Both the MEF and GSMA urged the licensing authority to submit a revised proposal, but GSMA said given the pressing market need for DRM, operators may be forced to forego the OMA technology and develop proprietary software.
“In order to provide the services and content which their customers desire, operators will have no option but to take their own routes toward implementing proprietary DRM solutions,” said Craig Ehrlich, chairman of the GSM Association. “These solutions may have lower licensing costs, but will ultimately introduce problems for customers when roaming, changing networks or exchanging content with other users.”
