The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) aims to make it easier to buy and view digital content, presumably boosting sales of that content, and help head off the kind of piracy problems that have plagued the music industry. Intentional or otherwise, it could also blunt Apple's growing dominance of digital media markets.

Today the digital media world is fragmented as the number of devices through which consumers can access content is limited by the source of that content. The most visible case is Apple's iTunes service that uses its FairPlay digital rights management software to restrict access to purchased songs to its iPod portable player and five types of computers.

DECE members include content creators and broadcasters such as Comcast, Fox Entertainment Group, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros. Entertainment; consumer electronics makers Philips Electronics, Sony and Toshiba; IT equipment manufacturers Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft; and Best Buy and other retailers.

Apple and its ally Walt Disney Co. were notably absent from the DECE announcement, Reuters reported. The story quoted Mitch Singer, CTO at Sony Pictures and DECE chief architect, as saying the group had invited Disney to join and would reach out to Apple.

DECE representatives have reportedly been working on the initiative since May. The DECE plan is to develop rules and technical standards that will allow consumers to buy movies and other digital content once and then play them anywhere on any device, including laptop computers, mobile phones and other devices. The plan also calls for development of some kind of virtual library where consumers would register their devices, allowing them to access content they've paid for, or even store their purchased content.

While the timetable for making all this a reality isn't clear, DECE members have said a more detailed plan and a logo DECE members would place on their products and Web sites could be unveiled in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Other corporate participants are expected to join the consortium over the next several months.