Cell phones have had a huge evolution in recent years. In fact, every time you acquire a new mobile phone (on average it is replaced every 18 months), it makes the one that was in your possession look like an antique. The first generations of mobile phones had only one simple function, that of ensuring a clear conversation. But something very important took the industry by surprise: ringtones. People were willing to pay for ringtones!
When the global ringtones market reached one billion dollars in 2001, the music industry suddenly discovered its keen interest in mobile networks. Typical mobile device consumption today includes relatively low-value content, such as ringtones, screensavers, and background images. However, as smartphones and other devices penetrate the market and the capabilities of mobile networks expand, a demand for new high-end content is growing rapidly.
With the evolution of networks to 2.5 G, it is now possible to download high-value content, such as video clips, games and sports syntheses. The content industry sees this as a threat and an opportunity. The opportunity consists, of course, in a new large market for the products of the industry. The threat can be summed up in one word: Napster. The music industry, which has seen its revenues fall rapidly as a result of Napster and similar technologies, cannot allow the same thing to happen with mobile networks.
OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) began work on digital rights management (DRM) specifications in 2001, as a response to clear market demand. Content protection was the missing link in the mobile distribution of premium content.
What is DRM?
Digital rights management is a means of ensuring the sale and distribution of digital content. It enables content providers, service providers and mobile operators to control the use of content. Examples of this control include:
- Prevent downloaded content from being illegally directed to other users. This option is called Forward Lock.
- Enforce the combined delivery of a content item and an associated rights object. This option is called Combined Delivery.
- Enforce separate delivery of a content item and an associated rights object. This option is called Separate Delivery.
- Regulate the distribution of content from one telephone device to another. This option is known as Superdistribution.
Who wants DRM?
While most people would like to receive their content for free, content providers would very much like users to pay. If anything, the proven success of Apple iTunes indicates that people are willing to pay for quality content. And many hands are open, waiting to receive such payments. The value chain for the distribution of content on mobile networks includes the provision of content, its aggregate, marketing and distribution, as well as mobile networks themselves. All these factors take a part and all have a clear interest in the development and implementation of effective digital rights management. Moreover, in a final analysis, DRM also serves consumers. Without effective protection, rights owners and content providers simply wouldn't sell their digital content.
Why do we need DRM?
The era of mobile phones with hard drives and 5-megapixel cameras is beckoning us. Very soon you will be able to store hundreds of songs on your phone and go on vacation without your camera, because you will use the phone to capture those precious moments. Most smartphones already have functionality similar to PDA and some new devices give their owner the ability to watch live TV. Soon you will have as many TV channels on your phone as you have them today on satellite or cable.
Emerging Asian markets, such as China and India, give us a good indication of market trends. China, for example, boasts more than 100 million cable TV households, producing an average revenue per user (ARPU) of about $2 per month. China also has a rising cell phone market, with more than 290 million mobile phones and an ARPU of $13 per month. The Chinese, it seems, are willing to pay relatively large sums for the privilege of using a mobile phone, while Premium TV content is barely successful among them.
Global demand for mobile phone content is expected to grow rapidly. Ovum Research estimates that consumers will spend more than $9 billion on mobile content this year. Revenues will grow to US$39 billion in 2007 (these scenarios boast cellular networks with a bandwidth of 2.5 G and more in the GSM world, which implies GPRS at a minimum). Content providers and mobile operators can expect new business opportunities, a differentiating factor and increases in ARPU from the delivery of valuable, high-quality content to subscribers.
Secure Superdistribution can multiply operators' revenue from content, as users will share content, and those on the final receiving side will also pay for it. But, alongside the promise of increased revenue comes the threat of content piracy, which can undermine the success of delivering high-quality content. Therefore, all this increase in revenue depends on an effective DRM solution in order to protect the contents.
Some mobile service providers that ignore content protection have taken a short-term attitude about illegally sharing files as a means of generating extra air traffic. But these practices cannot continue indefinitely. Content providers report significant losses as a result of online piracy. The International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) estimates, in its July 2003 report, that the pirated market for music on personal computers alone is worth US$4.6 billion.
How does DRM work?
The following generic example of the system developed by NDS, a leader in the field of conditional access (content protection for pay TV), shows the operation of an efficient DRM system. The company has recently applied its expertise in content protection to the field of DRM for mobile networks and has developed a roadmap for a system that will be compatible with and exceed the standards provided in OMA, versions 1 and 2.
The figure shows the mVideoGuard DRM system. A type, peer-to-peer system for digital rights management would work in a similar way to this:
1- A subscriber acquires content from an issuer, such as a mobile operator, and carries out the relevant commercial transactions.
mVideoGuard allows issuers to offer an attractive range of purchase models. Consequently, a user who selects a content item also selects the form of acquisition. For example, a user can choose to:
* Simple use (once)
* Multiple uses
* Uses for a limited interval of time
* Subscription
* Payment per level (stage) of play
* Gift (present)
2- The backend of the issuer causes the content to be sent to the NDS mVideoGuard™ Server.
3- The content packaging component of the server encodes the content, which is now in the DRM Content Format (DCF).
4- The rights issuance component of the server generates the corresponding rights object (RO) for the content. The rights object for the selected content contains a key that allows you to view this content only. The object of rights also sets the rules of content consumption according to the acquisition model selected by the subscriber. The object of rights, associated with the relevant protected content file, is uniquely encoded for the telephone device to which it will be sent.
Because the rights object is uniquely encoded for a particular phone device, no other device can use this rights object to decode the content. Moreover, in the unlikely event that someone seeks to obtain the key contained in the object of rights, the key will not be useful for other content on this telephone device or any other.
5- The backend of the sender sends the encoded content and the object of rights to the subscriber's telephone device.
6- Once on the telephone device, the nDS mVideoGuard client (hardware and software) manages the encoded content in accordance with the rules of the object of rights.
NDS mVideoGuard complies with OMA 1 and OMA 2 and therefore implements all rights and restrictions defined in the OMA standard (OMA-DRM-REL-v2). The system offers three levels of security, as you can see under the phone component in the attached diagram: level A consists of software-managed security only. Level B adds security through third-party hardware. Level C, the most secure level, includes a unique special microprocessor, designed by NDS. The DRM porting layer that can be seen on the telephone device allows senders to convert their systems from one level of security to another without having to carry out new integrations.
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