Companies get behind MPEG REL

Twenty-four companies from the world of entertainment, consumer electronics and technology today pledged support for the new MPEG Rights Expression Language (REL), a DRM standard from the ISO. Leading the list of names are Microsoft, the Motion Picture Association of America, the RIAA, Samsung, Universal Music Group, Verisign, Warner Brothers and ContentGuard, the company that helped design the specification. Based on XML, MPEG REL provides a uniform means of describing the terms and conditions under which a piece of protected content can be distributed. This is particularly big for content providers like Warner Brothers and Universal Music Group that fear that their digital content wares will be distributed freely around the 'Net. MPEG REL wraps content, allowing it to be distributed but not played unless the terms of the DRM system have been met.