Here We Go Again: Video Standards War 2010

“So guess what? Here we go again, but with a bit of a twist this
time.

“One thing that is different this time around is that it’s the
content owners, and not the consumer electronics firms that are
pushing hard for a solution, so it’s not patent royalties and the
ability to sell a new generation of electronic devices that is
driving the action.

“Instead, what’s involved are two different approaches intended
to help content vendors somehow survive in the face of plummeting
revenues and a continuing plague of piracy while allowing legal
content owners to watch videos on whatever device they want,
wherever and whenever they want, without having to carry around the
original media on which they purchased, for example, a movie.

“That’s a hard problem to solve. If the content vendor wants to
protect itself by using “Digital Rights Management” (DRM)
technology to prevent you from sharing a single purchase with your
1,000 closest friends, it may also add a feature that may prevent
you from transferring the same movie to your laptop as well, and
especially if you download the video, rather than buying it on
fixed media. Yes, the technology is getting more sophisticated,
allowing you to perhaps copy a video or music download (or a copy
of Word or an eBook, for that matter) to an approved number of
devices, or share it with a certain number of friends, but that
still isn’t the same as being able to use your purchase as you wish
without thinking about it.”

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