CR Forum in the News

Variety.com

Coalition logs on with digital specs
Such an approach would prove beneficial for record labels and movie studios, which would see their content distributed more widely among consumers. CRF's specification has code built into it to ensure that all copyright owners and players in the distribution chain are properly compensated when users locate content using it.

Associated Press

Group Seeks to Standardize Music, Videos
The Content Reference Forum aims to publish standards to allow consumers to play music or other digital content encoded in one format to play easily on any device and in any country while also obeying contractual obligations, such as paying licensing fees and enforcing copyright protections.

CNET News.com

Group wants P2P files to pay
The group is hoping to make online content distribution more flexible and help break down barriers between incompatible formats and copy-protection technologies. Currently, people who send files through file-trading networks, or via e-mail or instant messaging, are largely locked in to sending a specific file that may not be readable by people who lack the appropriate software or hardware.

DRM Watch

Content Reference Forum Launches and Releases Spec

The CRF is proposing an architecture for secure digital media e-commerce and distribution that is designed to complement existing standards, including the MPEG REL, several basic XML and web-services standards, and various content identification schemes. Its primary intent is to enable Superdistribution and other more flexible means of distributing content than those that current online services tend to support. The emphasis is on music and movie content.

Reuters

Tech Group Aims at Profit-Friendly File-Sharing

The world's largest software and music companies, together with a broad alliance of companies, on Wednesday said they would work together in a bid to transform Internet file sharing from a haven for piracy into a potential profit center.  The group on Wednesday issued an initial set of technology specifications in a bid to create a system in which users would share customized Internet links, called "content references," instead of swapping song or film files directly. 

Information Week

Standards Body Seeks To Help Content Owners Develop Flexible Business Models

The Content Reference Forum this week goes public with its first proposed specifications, and the ultimate goal is to enable the kind of interoperability that will let consumers more easily access the content they want and share it with others--regardless of format, platform, or other preferences. The initial set of specs, which the forum is calling the Baseline Profile 1.0, is focused on distribution of content to Internet-enabled PCs. Eventually, the forum plans to develop standards for distributing content to other devices, such as mobile phones and set-top boxes. The group also will work on standards for business processes such as reporting, payment services, and registration of any parties who hold a stake in the distribution of content.

IDG News Service

New industry group tries its hand at DRM
Also explained in the specifications is a new language called the "Contracts Expression Language" (CEL) that is designed to "express and enforce contractual agreements." That will allow information in a content link to be compared against a database of contractual agreements, so companies can ensure that the appropriate compensation is paid to each "value chain player" that helped that user obtain the media, he said.

LA Times (free registration required)

A Toll Booth for File Sharers
Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group, Microsoft and the five other companies are expected to announce today that they are collaborating on technology to ensure payment to copyright holders while letting computer users share digital products, as tens of millions of people do on networks like Kazaa.

ArsTechnica

Meet the Content Reference Forum

The CRF is at a very early stage in their proposal, but a few clear points can be made. For one, the central piece of their proposal is, you guessed it, content references, so-called "data packages that uniquely identify content and the context in which it will be used." These packages are akin to links; referencing them will evoke a connection to a special "Reference Services" network in order to determine what content you have rights to, what those rights are, and what format and platform are in use. The CRF gives an example of sharing a video with a friend.

Compter Weekly

Industry group aims to smooth online digital content distribution

For example, a Top 10 music file link from a music fan in the US sent to a friend in France should take into account that user's language preferences. If the user does not personally own a copy of the song, they should be able to purchase it in a way that takes into account the various contractual agreements that music companies and distributors have for music sales in France.

TechWeb

Standards Body Seeks To Help Content Owners Develop Flexible Business Models

Despite the glut of digital content available on the Internet, a host of barriers--such as the wide array of software formats and device types used to access content--still prevents content owners from developing truly flexible business models. A group of technology vendors and content providers has formed a standards body to solve that problem by creating a technical and business architecture that will support such business models.

TechNewsWorld

Scheme Hatched To Counter Digital Rights Balkanization

A scheme to counter the Balkanization of digital rights management (DRM) on the Internet was unveiled Wednesday by a standards group whose members include ARM, ContentGuard, Macrovision, Microsoft, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), Universal Music Group and VeriSign.  The group -- called the Content Reference Forum (CRF) -- has posted specifications that it asserts will create interoperability between digital content technologies and build a framework to ensure that participants adhere to the agreements.

Wired News

Helping Rival Formats Play Nice 

The group has published its first set of standards that would use Internet-based references to identify content and the business agreements attached to them. Under this scheme, devices would be sent Internet-based links instead of music files, for instance, and by accessing the link would be sent a song in the proper format and under terms set by the content owners.

Newsfactor.com

I.T. Powerhouses Propose New File-Sharing Plan