IBM Goes Mainstream With Digital Rights Application

IBM

IBM's Electronic Media Management System (EMMS) application was initially developed as a stand-alone application that would enable consumers in Japan to download music to a cell phone for restricted use.

"What were doing with EMMS 2 is taking digital rights management to the mainstream for all forms of content," said Brett MacIntyre, vice president of content management for the IBM Software Group.

The software encapsulates content in a secure container. Users with a browser plug-in are then able to access the content with whatever rights have been assigned to them, IBM said.

Potential applications would include the transfer and secure handling of patient records in the health-care industry or mortgage loan information in the financial industry, as well as for any content businesses want to sell electronically.

"We see a lot of potential around our integration partners, both for the global integrators and regional integrators, to integrate (digital rights management) into their existing client base," MacIntyre said.

He said licenses for EMMS range from $100,000 to $600,000, depending on the application.

As part of its plain to bring digital rights management solutions to the mainstream enterprises, IBM expanded the software's capabilities to handle not only audio and video files but any kind of content, including text documents, PDF files and images. In addition to PCs, it can also deliver secure content to such devices as PDAs, CDs, kiosks and game stations, IBM said.

Macintyre also said IBM is opening the application's APIs so that it can be integrated into a customer's existing infrastructure.

"In this market, there are a lot of people who provide [digital rights management for a particular problem set," he said. "We started off with a solution for music. There isn't anyone that has the same degree of cross-industry support and multi-industry support that we do."

IBM sees a great deal of need for the software in B2B and B2C applications. He said eventually a market could also develop for enterprises that want to control rights to documents within their organization.