Microsoft DRM monopoly fears
p2pnet.net News:- European Union antitrust regulators will launch an investigation into whether or not the proposed Microsoft-Time Warner joint acquisition of a US DRM company will strengthen Microsoft’s "already leading position" in the DRM solutions market.
DRM solutions are "likely to become pervasive" throughout the IT industry, notes the European Commmission, and, "the notified concentration may have spill-over effects on a number of related markets ranging from mobile telephony to word processors," it says in a statement.
It will also investigate further "competition concerns" related to the vertical integration of Microsoft in other markets.
Last March, the EU ordered Microsoft to offer a version of its Windows software sans Media Player to offset a possible Microsoft monopoly.
In April, Time Warner teamed up with Microsoft to buy most of Xerox Corp’s ContentGuard and in July, MS & TW – "both US companies," as the EC points out – asked for clearance under the EU’s Merger Regulation for plans to jointly acquire ContentGuard.
Its portfolio of DRM patents and technologies include XrML (eXtensible rights Markup Language) which, say the new partners, is now the basis of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved MPEG REL, the standard rights expression language for assigning usage rights and conditions to any digital object.
DRM may have started out as a way to hardwire owners’ music and movie rights, but it’s now being touted "for confidentiality purposes" in the corporate field.
"Under Microsoft’s and Time Warner’s joint ownership, ContentGuard may have both the incentives and the ability to use its IPR portfolio to put Microsoft’s rivals in the DRM solutions market at a competitive disadvantage," says the EC, going on:
"This joint acquisition could also slow down the development of open interoperability standards. As such, this would allow the DRM solutions market to ‘tip’ towards the current leading provider, Microsoft."
The statement says the opening of a second-stage merger investigation, "does not prejudge the Commission’s conclusions and final decision, which must be reached in a maximum of four months, i.e. until 06 January 2005".
"Microsoft already is under close scrutiny by European regulators, says an Associated Press story here, continuing:
"In March, the EU slapped it with a record fine of 497 million euros ($596 million) for monopoly abuses, including the Media Player issue. Microsoft has appealed at a European court to overturn the fine and requirements to change the way it sells Windows.
"New York-based Time Warner has also clashed with Brussels, winning approval in 2000 of its merger with the leading Internet service America Online only after agreeing to abandon its purchase of the London-based EMI record label."
Started in April 2000, ContentGuard is based in Bethesda, Maryland, and El Segundo, California.
August 26th, 2004 at 5:29 pm
C’mon EU, do a little DOS, smoke some Windows, a hit of DRM. Try it! Everyone else is doing it. You want to be cool like your friends, don’t you? It won’t hurt you, I promise!