Apr. 2, 2002: ContentGuard turned over XrML to OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), the body that oversees standards related to XML and e-business.  OASIS has formed a Rights Language Technical Committee to define rights description language standards; committee members include representatives from HP, Microsoft, Verisign, and Reuters as well as ContentGuard, although other OASIS members may choose to join.  The technical committee will start with XrML and modify the language as it sees fit.  ContentGuard will have no say in the future design of the language, other than as a member of the committee.   ContentGuard will then be able to sell licenses for the resulting language, as well as implementation tools that they will modify to fit the new language design.

ContentGuard has been promising for quite a while that they will turn the language over to a suitable standards body for definition and stewardship.  OASIS is a fine choice: it ties XrML in with other XML standards, some of which already form part of the basis for the language.  OASIS' membership consists primarily of technology vendors, not publishers or other media companies.  This will allow the rights language to transcend the concerns of particular segments of the media market, as would be the case if a body like MPEG or the Open E-Book Forum took over the standard.  The lack of media company involvement should not be a problem, because XrML exists at a level of detail that is too deep for most media companies to bother with at this early stage; it will be better for vendors to build tools around the language before it is presented to publishers for market approval.   

ContentGuard is able to relinquish control of OASIS' rights language design while retaining the ability to charge for licenses to the language.  ContentGuard can do this because it holds patents on any rights language, not just XrML as it exists today.  OASIS, unlike other standards bodies (such as the W3C), allows companies like ContentGuard to contribute technology that can be licensed for money, as long as it's on RAND (reasonable and nondiscriminatory) terms.  

The move to OASIS is a positive step in ContentGuard's ongoing process of making the industry comfortable that it wants to help set good standards that the DRM industry will want and that will move it forward.  ContentGuard's patents allow it to take legal action against other organizations that would advance their own rights language.  As another important step towards market acceptance, ContentGuard will need to assure the industry that it does not intend to use its patent portfolio as a stick with which to beat other organizations.  Only the passage of time will provide this assurance.

For more information about DRM-related standards please visit the DRM Watch website.