OpenIPMP started out as an open-source, user-authenticating DRM technology for the MPEG-4 codec that used MPEG-4 IPMP (Intellectual Property Management and Protection), a way of binding rights metadata to content and supported the ODRL and MPEG REL rights expression languages (RELs). 

The new version expands the number of standards with which OpenIPMP is compatible: it supports Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) DRM 2.0 and ISMAcrypt streaming media encryption.  It supports a wider variety of codecs, can integrate with multiple encryption algorithms and key management schemes, and comes with plug-ins for Windows Media Player and Apple's QuickTime player. The software compiles on Mac OS X and various flavors of Linux and BSD Unix as well as Windows, and it can be easily imported into development tools such as Visual Studio (Windows) and Eclipse (cross-platform). 

There has been an upsurge in so-called open source DRM activity lately, despite the fact that some in the open-source community still believe that DRM is anathema to open source. (As one Linux website says, "It's a disgrace that Free/Open Source Software users embrace the idea of restricting freedom this way.")  OpenIPMP has the distinction of being the only complete implementation that is available under traditional open source licensing: besides OpenIPMP, there is Sun's Project DReaM (no complete implementations yet, just specs), the Digital Media Project (ditto), and Melodeo's PachyDRM (not really open source). 

This surge of activity is a reflection of the fact that DRM technology is notoriously unprofitable for technology vendors; no one wants to pay for it.  Yet this is very far from saying that the technology is not viable.  There is another type of technology in which the mainstream market sees no direct economic value: operating systems. 

At the same time, we are compelled to mention that there is no such thing as "free" DRM software, even if the source code is available under GPL-like licensing.  Patent licensing issues continue to inject economic uncertainty beyond the source code itself, particularly when there are known patent licensing pools around standards like OMA DRM and those from MPEG.

Despite that, we believe that open-source DRM can affect the trajectory of the market, particularly in market segments that technology vendors haven't locked up yet, such as mobile devices and digital broadcasting.  We also expect that open-source DRM will do more to advance the cause of standards such as the ones mentioned above, few of which have achieved any commercial traction.  As long as open-source DRM implementers focus on actual market opportunities rather than open-ended idealism, their efforts may succeed.

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