DRM Interoperability and DLNA Devices.
Tomas Sommar · 2011
This degree project studies how both content owners’ demand of content protection and users expectations of content portability can be met.As content owners’ demand of content protection when delivering premium content to end customers, service providers need to fulfill these requirements by implementing content protection systems. At the same time, end customers expect content to be portable across different devices and platforms. This degree project study of technology enabling Digital Rights Management (DRM) interoperability can be used to meet both content owners’ and end customer’s expectations. The degree project concludes that at this stage approaches proposed by a set of consortiums and organizations are still too immature for implementation by a single service provider. Furthermore, two content protection concepts, Link Protection and Authorized Domain (AD), have been evaluated. This degree project concludes that the AD is a stronger candidate for implementation due to the flexible business and user models, as well as the marked adoption the concept can deliver. In addition, three different DRM technologies that utilize the AD concept are evaluated against the amount of flexibility, platform independence, as well as market adoption the DRM technologies deliver. The degree project report suggests that the DRM technologies Microsoft PlayReady and Marlin are both strong competitors amongst these technologies.Moreover, this degree project studies Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) technology and how such technology can be used to share and transfer content between devices in a home networked environment. Special interest is put into how DRM technologies utilizing the AD concept can be combined with DLNA technology. The degree project concludes that to create a union of these technologies, a DRM client supporting the current DRM system in the DLNA devices is needed.