Electronics giants Sony, Samsung, Philips and Matsushita (Panasonic)
are getting together to develop standard specifications for piracy-proofing software. The new consortium, to be called the
Marlin Joint Development Association, will also included Philips-owned digital rights management developer Intertrust Technologies, which has been specializing in the area of making things piracy proof for sometime.
It is the first big effort by the consumer electronics industry to tackle the piracy problem together since the **Secure Digital
Music Initiative**, a similar consortium which also involved the record labels, and which kinda collapsed back in 2001. Confirming the new consortium in the Wall Street Journal, Intertrust boss
Talal Shamoon said: "The CE industry has been pretty quiet, but now they are getting ready to detonate their DRM".
It is not clear what relationship the CE firms intend to have with Apple and Microsoft who, of course, have their own DRM solutions.