Watermarking DRM Could Offer New Opportunities

Many see DRM as a glass half empty and also a barrier to interoperability, others see it as a means of restricting abuse, copyright infringement and piracy. The solution may not be as black and white as many believe.

Only a few years ago we would have advocated the wholesale dropping of DRM and a position similar to that adopted by MP3 music. Today however, there is potential for a softer approach to DRM to offer great opportunities for the marketplace. 

First we must accept that the current prevailing ‘unsocial’ or encrypted DRM serves few and in fact in many cases can be broken fairly easily. The major retail channels have walked away from a common standard and have created their own DRM ‘walled gardens’. There is little point in pointing a finger at Amazon, as Apple, Kobo, Nook all have their own DRM flavours and Adobe’s ACS4 is still locked into 2006 and apparently going nowhere fast. There are even some who are now actively pursuing the establishment of DRM on HTML5.

There is watermarking, which through the provision of a sort of an ‘ex libris’ stamp, offers a softer and more social form of DRM. Some would argue that watermarking can be removed, or abused, as easily as it can be applied. However, watermarking offers visible authentication and ownership. If it were coupled to a virtual registration database then removal, or alteration, would quickly identify the file as a rogue. So in principle we have the opportunity to establish an ownership model, but what is in it for the consumer and the author and how does such a stamp offer a market opportunity?

Today it is not possible to resell a used ebook. This applies loosely to all digital files and although this is being tested by the likes of ReDigi in both the music and book markets, we remain tethered to the first sale doctrine. However, why would we not want to resell ebooks? Some would suggest a used ebook market could kill off the front list market, others that the author would see no revenues for the supplemental sales.

However, others would suggest that a vibrant used ebook market could actually stimulate the market and that offer revenues against not just the second but third, forth, fifth, etc sale of the ebook. If coupled with an authentication and audit trail, watermarking could create additional revenue for all, social information and marketing opportunities and mirror the rights on physical books. Importantly it could act as a significant barrier to pirates who would have to establish a different value proposition.

Today’s DRM is restrictive, segmented and frankly a mess but that doesn’t mean that we need to flip and go DRM free which equally may be counterproductive as it would be difficult to put the horse back in the stable once it has bolted. Alternately, we lack any watermarking standards today and this itself could inhibit the adoption of the technology.

The question is, who is seriously looking and discussing this issue today? Stumbling blindly forward with unsocial DRM is not the answer, nether is a mass exodus to no DRM.

HTML5 To Be Put Under DRM?

Many see the emerging HTML5 web standard as the way forward to address many of today’s challenges. Irrespective of device, as long as you have access to the web HTML5 and a browser you are connected. But then we have the vested interest of Hollywood and others who are fixated on control and locking up access.

Today the body responsible for developing HTML5 standards, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is locked in an ideological battle with bodies such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Should we care –Yes. Will the outcome impact us – Yes.

The EFF have stated publicly their case online, ‘Why the HTML5 Standard Fight Matters’

The battle is over the proposed Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) to HTML5, which may sound little but threaten to lock up media content under all browsers and effectively port the cumbersome and consumer un-centric world of DRM onto the World Wide Web, or as we all know it, the Internet. The EFF are far from alone in the battle and some 27 rights groups and others have written directly to Sir Berners-Lee stating their opposition.

Some have argued that far from an open interoperable web we could have images and pages that cannot be saved or searched, a situation where ads cannot be blocked, browsers become restricted and much of we enjoy today is effectively controlled under the big content companies. It would be like have DRM applied by many over all the internet.

In response, W3C chief executive Jeffrey Jaffe writing on the subject clearly recognises that  EME is contentious but says that the proposed EME specification ‘only defines Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that would provide access to content decryption modules (CDMs), part of Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems.’ In other words they are merely creating the hooks into HTML5 and not the CDM /DRM technology that could be used by others to create their ‘walled gardens.’

It is clearly a battle between those who value interoperability, access and the principles under which the W3C have worked and the vested and of the major media companies who want to lock up access to material within the Internet.

We may not be able to influence the outcome but ultimately it is the consumer who will either enjoy the interoperable and openly available fruits of HTML5, or find they are inaccessible, or hidden, behind many walled gardens.

Technology Skills In Demand

What do you think is the technology skill in most demand today?

As all companies fight to be seen in the ever expanding digital arena then the demand for the right technology skills increases. It’s a simple case of supply and demand.

Freelancer.co.uk claim that job adverts for top digital jobs grew between the second and third quarters of this year from 189,917 to 230,614, that’s over a 20% hike in demand. Following the redesign of the EBay site demand for developers there rose some 44%.  Facebook advertisers and Internet marketing demand was up 12%, search engine optimisation 12%, HTML some 8%.

An interesting trend was the continued increase in demand for Android app developers, which was up some 16%, compared to Apple iOS’s demand growth of 8%. This clearly demonstrates that Android is now holding its own and Apple is being pegged back by the onslaught of devices from the likes of Samsung. However, the biggest demand growth was associated the ‘paperless office’ and the transition from paper documents to online and cloud based services.

Technology is changing and with it the skills and demand for developers and support to exploit it. Nearly a quarter of a million jobs were reported for skills which did not exist a few years ago and itself again demonstrates the volume of demand in the marketplace.

Sumo Wrestling: WalMart Vs Amazon

This week, Reuters broke the news that the world’s largest store, Walmart, had taken the decision to no longer carry the world’s largest etailor’s Kindle tablets and eReaders once the existing inventory and purchase commitments had been honoured. It was reported as being a merchandising strategy and a recognition that Amazon is a real competitor across all media content. Is more about who owns the customer, who is providing the service and whose brand is actually being built than dropping some devices?

In the physical world it was all about filling the shelf and if you didn’t have the product on the shelf everything else could simply fail. The likes of Amazon then created the virtual shelf with vitual inventory and online service and many failed to match the offer. Some even effectively gave their digital business, be it for physical or digital product, to these new virtual traders. Amazon built a significant marketplace which few have been able to emulate, where even when they didn’t get the sale themselves, it was done effectively in their name and they earned a commission on it. Amazon is no longer about books, or digital media, it is a retail virtual market. The Apple store then took this commission approach to a new level and established that doing business through their appstore , on their iPads, be it for purchases or subscriptions, warranted a hefty 30% commission payment. They even tried to force the whole digital market back into fixed pricing with them being the ‘most favoured nation.’

We have gone from digital device and format/DRM lock-ins and transaction charges to platform commission and portal charges and now have to ask what next and how many slices can the pie take?

It is somewhat pleasing to see the emergence of HTML5 as the potential great leveller, but equally interesting to see the browser positions adopted by Amazon Kindle with their Silk browser  and Apple with own browser.  Are these to become the new toll booths and open market restrictions?

If we were to  ask the consumer who is their first choice gateway for music, film, games, TV, radio, news, books, will they select one umbrella service or many separate ones? Are they now looking for a simplified access and a one stop shop and is this driven by a marketplace or merely a platform. We don’t know the answer but unless we ask we will merely assume we know the answer.  The important thing is that what once was the brand everyone thought they bought from may now be changing and the power shifting through technology to others who simple attract consumers and facilitate access.

Walmart may so no to selling Kindles but if all they devices they sell still access Amazon and they don’t have the comparable offer are they exposed to the same risk? By not stocking Kindles are they also just driving their consumers who want one to another store full stop? 

Maybe Microsoft could have a Huge Role in Publishing?

The news that the lumbering giant Microsoft has once again entered the ebook world raised eyebrows, created much chatter and was certainly welcome at Barnes and Noble and especially with their investors. Leaving aside the obvious college and educational opportunities and their need to get back onto the mobile saddle and create something with their Nokia alliance, what could Microsoft do that would really make a difference and give them pole position in the hearts and minds of those in the digital world? The iPhone and iPad have catapulted Apple to the premier device position, Android has made Google more than just a search engine and Chrome has grown in the browser world. Microsoft must act or be relegated to playing in the lower divisions.

We thought about many angles, but the one which screams out to us is to their ability to leverage their dominant position in the ‘office’ product area. This could also defend it against the increasing ‘open source’ world pretenders and take it to a new level of ‘must have’.  Today Word, Excel, Powerpoint remain the de facto office and home document creation applications. However, they remain wedded to the past and exposed in the future. In reality, they haven’t developed significantly for over a decade and are in desperate need of more than a lick of paint.

So what would we do if we were Microsoft? Obviously they will do their best to be a white knight to publishing against the forces of evil but can the do much more? How would we secure their future? What would be the lead strategy that would pull-through other ‘publishing benefits? Simply competing on the OS platform isn’t going to do it. Lining up with Barnes and Noble is like going to support a mid table team – they may make it, they may win some games, but they are unlikely to dominate through Microsoft support alone. Nokia is a great partner, with a strong history of achievement, but they too are desperately looking for partners to shore up their future and have also made some bad calls over OS platforms which have cost them dear.

Our approach would be a return to the basics and play to their strengths. This would recognise that everyone today wants to express themselves and have a voice. If Office were to be able to output word documents in epub compliant tagged format to an open XML rich schema - that could make a difference. If it also offered content output rendered to HTML5,that too could make a difference. If it could ingest current word based documents and render them to ePub or HTML5 that could make a difference. If it offered collaborative editing at a premium within an XML construct that could make a difference. If the schemas were open and also able to be expanded and adapted that too could make a difference.

This would not negate Adobe’s role in complex constructs but would enable the feeds and the vast majority of works to circumvent conversion effort and be immediately publishable. It would enable the authoring and ultimately reading and it will engage a wide audience. Now take one step further and ensure any document that is exported is correctly rights tagged along with any inserted documents, pictures, audio, tables etc and we could be talking about the democratisation of publishing fro the author to the reader.

Some may say that we are dreaming but I bet we aren’t the only ones…

SkyFire Addresses Flash on Mobile

Sometime someone comes along and demonstrates where the consumer demand really is and show those who ignore it, or think they know better, they have got it wrong. We all know the video platforms of today are dominated by Adobe’s Flash and that some believe that HTML5 is the real answer other that Silverlight will prevail. The real fight started when Steve Jobs declared Flash would not be supported on his iPad, iPhone and even withdrew the built in plug in on Macs. He started a crusade to rid the world of what he saw as proprietary and bad code and like it or not, force HTML down the market’s throat.

When he was forced to back track on one of his other mantras which stated developers could only use Apple tools the door started to open to Flash and wasn’t going to shut close again in a hurry. Not only have Adobe stuck their foot in the door opening but so have others such as Skyfire.

Skyfire have developed a mobile browser that not only enables users to follow links from Facebook,Twitter, iGoogle, but also play the videos shared across social networks. Skyfire success on Android demonstrates that users want all the Internet content to work on their devices and not be dependant on a WiFi connection. When Skyfire launched on Android it added over 500,000 new users in just six weeks and also reached the top 0.7% apps on the Android Market.

It has now become the first Flash playing app to get Apple’s approval. Such was the flood of downloads when it was released in the US that it quickly became the top grossing app and the third highest paid app overall. However their success came at a price in the demand overwhelmed their servers. Skyfire is now officially “sold out”. Robert Oberhofer on their blog said “The user experience was performing well for the first few hours, but as the surge continued, the peak load on our servers and bandwidth caused the video experience to degrade. We are working really hard to increase capacity and will be accepting new purchases from the App Store as soon as we can support it.”

What a nice problem to have!

Skyfire plays Flash video by dynamically coding video files into HTML5 in the cloud and optimizing them for mobile delivery. Skyfire’s cloud technology should make videos play faster and smoother, with less buffering and better battery life of the device. Skyfire’s cloud ensures that each video is adapted to the right bandwidth, as well as the right format.

Yes they still migrate dynamically to HTML5 but Mr Jobs they recognise the demand out there and also have adopted an innovative way to meeting it. The one clear message is that Flash and demand for Flash aren’t going away today.

HTML5, Silverlight and Flash

Whilst many talk of HTML5 being the way ahead they forget the reasons why the likes of Adobe’s Flash and Microsoft’s Silverlight platforms have attracted their own followings. HTML5 will be the future base that is a fact but will not replace the need for Flash or Silverlight.

Silverlights 5.1 new tools enables creators to provide full surround-sound with a video stream, decode the stream and allow users to experience the full 6-channel output. Now that many devices will already be capable of handling the enhanced audio. BSkyB's Sky Player and Netflix both utilise the Silverlight patform for streaming and surround-sound could offer obvious benefit when streaming to HTPCs or internet-enabled TVs.

Corporate IT have previous objected to video video-based applications, arguing that they are complex and expensive to deploy, need a high bandwidth which could impact other critical services such as email. Adobe have now introduced Flash Media Server 4 with several feature which could make video a standard for corporate networks and address these concerns.
HTTP Dynamic Streaming, enables video files to be stored in any available Web cache locations, which means that they require less bandwidth to deliver them to individual users and allows applications to be scaled to service a larger numbers of users.
IP Multicast uses routers to broadcast a video stream to multiple clients across a corporate network. Corporate updates and messages can be delivered as video all of its employees across everywhere at the same time.

Peer-Assisted Delivery addresses’ large-scale video delivery through peer-to-peer networking such that when a user requests a video, the server will identify client with available bandwidth to receive the transmission which in turn can then pass it to other clients until it reaches the user. Thereby spreading the load.

With both Microsoft and Adobe gunning to build media platforms and Google wanting to establish Android as the mobile platform of choice it hard to see how Apple can continue to play the role of King Canute over these platforms.