UltraViolet to Make Existing DRMs Inter-Operate

Neustar Media, the company that’s responsible for developing the technology behind the now controversial UltraViolet Digital Right Management (DRM) system, unveiled its plans to revive it, but not by considering it an entirely new system, but by distributing content from the cloud using existing solutions.

After a year ago the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) proudly released a new cloud-based DRM system, they soon realized that it was a disaster since they couldn’t come to an agreement with Amazon and iTunes, two of the major players when it comes to commercializing media materials.

Hollywood representatives hoped that they could convince people to buy DVDs and Blu-Ray disks if they would be offered the means to stream their content across other devices, but last month the first UltraViolet movies were released and customers were not satisfied, mainly because of the fact that they couldn’t play them on iTunes.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Tim Dodd, VP and GM of Neustar Media showed that he’s still optimistic about the technology, but he also wanted to clarify the fact that UltraViolet is not a new system, instead it will make existing DRMs inter-operate.

“So, Ultraviolet's not really a new DRM, it's a new way of handling existing DRMs so they actually talk together and provide consumers, you know, what they need to do. Like ultimate choice, conference and freedom,” Dodd said.

Warner Brothers already launched some titles and in the upcoming weeks Sony and NBCU will follow. Also, Lions Gate, BBC Worldwide Entertainment and other major studios joined the negotiations table.

Dodd claims that it’s already working “on a whole bunch of different devices that are tied to different types of services.”

Apple does not agree completely with the whole concept, but in terms of applications sets, they approve of the Flixter app that allows users to play content on almost every platform.

The other major player, Amazon, is not on board yet, but they’re currently having discussions with them and all the big retailers such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

“New consumer behavior, new studio behavior as well. Initially, the launch is really driven by some of the studios. You see Flickster out there and you'll see other studios on board very soon, but I think there is strong interest from the retailers,” he added.

Finally, he believes that the technology could be successfully adapted to work with other things such as books, music and even games.

UltraViolet may still have some problems and some time may pass before the technology will be embraced by the public and by the industry, but as a concept, these types of ideas might be what Eugene Kaspersky was talking about the other day when he announced that his company didn’t agree with the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the principles it stood for.