MPAA: ‘We want consumers to have content whenever and wherever they want’

MPAA calls DRM an “enabling tool,” and that consumers who come by their content legally should be able to enjoy it “on any device,” anywhere, anytime.

In a keynote address to Variety Magazine’s Digital Rights Management Conference yesterday in Los Angeles, MPAA Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman laid out some interesting details of his organization’s efforts to “..enhance the consumer experience with digital media.”

Glickman makes some surprising announcements for a such a large copyright lobbying organization, especially in light of how its RIAA cousin has so systematically fought the distribution of digital media at almost every turn.

He notes the MPAA’s commitment to even the smallest of screens, that it wishes to make increasing amounts of content available for mobile distribution through services like MobiTV and Verizon Vcast.

For online content offerings, he points out that all of the major studios have licensed content to a variety of digital distribution sites. Specifically, on-demand streaming sites are now offered by all of the television networks, and there are a number of rental and download sites like Movielink, iTunes, Amazon, Walmart, and even BitTorrent.

“Our goal, is a diverse, high-quality, hassle-free consumer experience—one that makes the most effective case possible not merely for the legitimate content marketplace, but for its vast superiority.”

He then goes on to state the MPAA’s commitment to delivering entertainment to consumers “…whenever and wherever they want…in flexible ways…on their preferred platforms and devices, ” and that ” We eagerly embrace every commercially viable entertainment delivery method, so long as it incorporates reasonable protections against the misuse of filmmakers’ creative efforts.”

Say what? It gets even better.

He continues:

We wholeheartedly support allowing consumers to make authorized copies of the content they purchase. We expect to be able to make this happen for HD DVDs hopefully this year. Standard definition may take a bit longer since we need to work with the technology community to unleash its full potential. But we are in agreement on the outcome we wish to see: Consumers should be able to enjoy authorized DVD content on their home networks…on portable devices…at their convenience.

Since when has the MPAA embraced the idea of copies, let alone portability and convenience? Have they woken up and “smelled the coffee” that’s long ben simmering at the RIAA’s bedside?

If it’s true that the MPAA has really embraced content portability than we have truly begun to witness a new era in content distribution.

When it comes to DRM, the bane of the digital music world and the subject of EMI’s new deal with iTunes to offer DRM-free selections to assuage consumers, the MPAA wants DRM standardization rather than DRM-free content.

“We believe that consumers who come by their content legally should be able to enjoy it on any device,” Glickman says. “It’s an attainable goal and certainly one we share with many across the consumer electronics, technology and entertainment landscape.We need everyone at the table working together. It’s important that we remove artificial barriers to progress.”

In other words, “we need to create a universal system of DRM.”

He then goes on to label DRM an “enabling tool,” a curious reference in my opinion but, I think that he refers to it as such because of the way it that it locks in consumers and thereby secures a profit stream for content producers and “enables” them to make a profit. For he then says that DRM “makes possible the ongoing contributions of American filmmaking to our nation’s culture and commerce.” Don’t you just love MPAA-speak?

The bottom line in his speech is that the MPAA supports new content distribution and delivery methods to increase, improve, and expand consumer choices and experiences but, it wants a standardized and secure DRM system in place before it proceeds.

I find this to be good news overall, for it means user portability and innovative content distribution methods in ways that have up to now been stifled by the MPAA out of fear of undermining existing sources of revenue like cinemas and DVDs in particular, its real bread winner.

If it means them dreaming up the ultimate “DRM machine” then so be it, for there has yet to be a DRM system that hasn’t been hacked, cracked, and broken.

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