MPEG LA cuts mobile phone DRM tax
But far enough?
Posted in Mobile, 14th April 2005 06:18 GMT
See what The Register's experts have to say on application security
In the face of strong protest from GSM operators and handset manufacturers, IP rights holders have cut their proposed rates for mobile DRM.
The MPEG Licensing Authority (LA) says that it will cut the rate payable per handset to 65 cents (from $1) and to 25 cents per subscriber per year, payable after the first year. Previously, the MPEG LA wanted one per cent of transactions.
The MPEG LA is a collection pool representing DRM patent holders including ContentGuard, Intertrust, Matsushita, Philips and Sony.
The GSM Association balked at what it considered excessively high fees, describing them as "impractical, excessive and short-sighted". It remains to be seen whether the carriers and manufacturers will be mollified.
If they reject the MPEG LA's submission to the OMA group, carriers are likely to find their own cheaper DRM, leading to the kind of fragmentation plaguing the PC locked-music download market. ®
Related stories
Phone DRM too expensive, say carriers
Mobile DRM levy hits operators where it hurts
Phone biz agrees on $1 DRM levy
CE giants open DRM to the community
MPEG founder rallies DRM players


The future of SaaS and IT infrastructure management
Solving on-premise email challenges with on-demand services
The business case for application security
Reducing messaging and web security costs with managed services

Win a Samsung C6625!
Is your cameraphone an oxymoron?
Reg Mobile and Wireless newsletter is go! go! go!
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter