Carriers Not Up To Speed On DRM
In this essay from Telephony Online, they say that wireless carriers are not very informed of the importance of Digital Rights Management, and discuss the importance of DRM to procuring good content from media outlets. Telecoms will need to tackle this issue if they wish to make deals to distribute branded video content. When I worked at Disney, I represented them at the Wireless Multimedia Forum, and in those days it was painfully obvious that the telecom industry had no clue how important DRM is to media companies. Content control -not just for copy protection, but also quality assurance- is of paramount importance and until it is guaranteed, the flow of high-value branded content will be but a trickle. However, at Techdirt, we question the uber-importance of major media content, noting that much of the content that generates revenues in the wireless industry is, in fact, created by the customers themselves. SMS, PTT, voice calls, MMS, and e-mail are all examples of media that are dominated by user-created content, and camera-phones will only serve to increase the customer's role. So, while DRM is essential to major media firms for their participation in the mobile economy, while they sort that issue out, the mobile economy may develop with or without their content.
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