The GSM Association (GSMA), a trade association representing wireless
carriers, continued to express
public
disapproval of MPEG LA's patent licensing royalty scheme for OMA DRM
implementations, even after MPEG LA
revised the
terms downward. In a press release issued on Wednesday, GSMA deemed the terms
"unacceptable" and expressed "dismay" on behalf of its members.
MPEG LA had lowered its royalty terms in response to
sharp criticism
from wireless carriers and handset makers. Its latest scheme calls for
royalties of US $0.65 per handset and $0.25 per subscriber to mobile content
services based on the OMA DRM 1.0 standard.
Meanwhile, GSMA is continuing with its call for alternative DRM solutions for
mobile content services, in an exercise that is commonly known as a "beauty
contest." The trade association claims that it has received 14 proposals
from vendors, which are doubtless eager to parade their wares in front of many
of the world's largest wireless carriers.
GSMA states that it is unable to make any technology recommendations at this
time, owing to "material issues that require resolution." We strongly
suspect that some of those "material issues" arise out of two important factors.
First, and most importantly, antitrust law (in the US, at least) tightly
constrains trade associations' abilities to endorse technology vendors on behalf
of their memberships. Secondly, the patents in the MPEG LA pool may well
also apply to the proprietary technologies that GSMA is evaluating.
Once again, GSMA -- which represents only a portion of the companies that
would be affected by the patent royalty scheme -- is engaging in the sort of
posturing on behalf of its members that one would expect in this situation.
This wrangling over DRM patent licensing terms is really a drawn-out public
negotiation session; one sign of this is the language in the GSM Association's
press release, which -- while rejecting MPEG LA's latest terms -- implies
support for the idea of a DRM patent license pool that it did not express in its
previous public statements, as well as the expectation that MPEG LA will respond
with yet more concessions.
Yet while GSMA persists in its threats to advance proprietary DRM
technologies and set back hopes for standards-based DRM, there is an equal and
opposite threat: if MPEG LA's royalty terms are forced too low, then it may fall
apart. Its own members may decide that their best opportunities lie in
pursuing matters on their own -- perhaps in court.
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