02/09/2007, 11:30am, EST
Friday, February 9th
Coral Consortium urges Jobs to join ranks
Current members of the Coral Consortium include the big four music labels -- EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group -- as well as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The consortium has also recruited the Motion Picture Association of America, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Time Warner Cable, Twentieth Century Fox Film, and Warner Bros. Technical Operations.
In its letter, the consortium writes to Jobs: "The directors of Coral Consortium were pleased to hear about your interest in interoperability. We agree with you that this is a big problem for consumers. They should be able to acquire content from a wide variety of competitive service providers and play their purchased content on a range of devices and platforms from different manufacturers. This is an issue that is very important to our membership."
The Coral Consortium claims it has wrestled with the issues around interoperability for some years and that the problem is in fact business related, adding that it has completed the development of a suite of technical specifications for interoperability which are readily available for download from its website.
"We think that [Apple's] engineers will find it very straightforward to integrate this framework into your iTunes service. This technology would enable you to interoperate immediately with Microsoft based Janus devices and services, and with OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) based devices and services. Of course the secrets in Fairplay remain safe - adopting the Coral technology does not require you to share them with anyone else."
The technology addresses music as well as video, stressing the importance of protecting film assets alongside music catalogs from illegal piracy while expanding the availability of legal content. The consortium's letter also addresses potential concerns over content provider worries by noting that many parts of the content industry were involved in the development of its specifications.
"We offer Apple, Inc. a warm invitation to join Coral's ranks and help provide interoperability and the increased choice that will bring to all of our customers."
Filed under: industry
Other story tags: digital music/video
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And btw, enough of these huge media conglomerates jockeying for market leverage and ownership. Are they even relevant to us anymore?
When was the last time any of them truly entertained us, or consistently provided us with content that made us FEEL true spirit or joy or satisfaction or even think?? 3, 4 decades ago?
Nowadays, we're lucky if they distribute one movie or album a year worthy of high acclaim. Who needs mega-mergers or media consolidation if that's all it gives us??
-Death to DRM
If someone wants it bad enought they will find a way to get it, the simple way is to just buy it as a reasonable price (99˘ songs, $9.99 movies).
I equate this to the toy industries insistance of putting heavy duty wire and screws, molded indestructable plastic and double strength boxes to deter theft. These annoy consumers, cost nearly as much as the toys and are an enviromental hazard, but they don't care.
I'd like to encase all the Record Label and Movie execs in that packaging.