Mobile Alliance Lines Up Copy Protection Patents
from the and-this-benefits-who? dept
The Open Mobile Alliance, which has been working feverishly on a copy protection standard for mobile phones has announced that they've gotten past one major hurdle: getting all the various patent holders to pool the patents. What this means is that this standard is likely to move forward on mobile phones, as it has pretty widespread industry support. Of course, that doesn't mean it's really good for anyone. While some say that this copy protection will make companies more comfortable releasing content, that's a total red herring. If there's demand for the content, it'll find it's way to the device. Copy protection won't actually "protect" any content. It will still get out there. However, it will make life more difficult for legitimate purchasers of content who will be annoyed to find they can't do what they want with the content. If anything, all this announcement really means is that we'll all be paying more, because everyone is going to have to pay royalties for these newly pooled patents. So, let's see... the content isn't actually protected and still gets copied for unauthorized users, consumers have fewer rights to do what the want to do with the content they actually acquired legitimately, and everything costs more. Sounds useful.
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