Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

A Wireless Alliance Forms

Posted by michael on from the your-call-cannot-be-connected-as-dialed dept.

MikeD83 writes "A wireless alliance has formed between the likes of Nokia, Microsoft, Intel, Walt Disney Co., and almost 200 other companies. Their mission is to develop an open standard for how wireless phones can be used on any network." Whoo-hoo! DRM for cell phones! The group's website has some more information.

3 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Counteraction to Michael's Paranoia by melatonin · · Score: 5, Informative
    The article in question says absolutely nothing about Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology

    The article says,

    The common standard also will solve such business issues as digital rights management and payment, officials said.

    It's down at the bottom. You know, so no one will notice it.

    </paranoia>

    --
    Moderators should have to take a reading comprehension test.
  2. DRM by jsse · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Whoo-hoo! DRM for cell phones

    You might be joking, but the horror is that DRM actually work well with mobile phone.

    I've been working with people bidding projects for mobile computing. Mobile business is an area where you find eveyrthing proprietary.

    First you must sign NDA to be allowed to program a GSM sim, then when you've done with the sim you must sign a partnership(aka pay them big bucks of money) agreement with telcos and mobile makers so that they'd ever consider recognize the sim cards you made. Otherwise they can always deny your sim from accessing their network. The problem is that when you asked one Telco/mobile maker to sign an agreement with you, they'll probably include in the agreement forbid you from signing a similar agreement with their competitors. There goes the market penetration.

    That's why you don't see much special purpose sim card around. Unlike PC market, the business of mobile markets are controlled by the telcos and mobile makers.

    DRM would probably not work in PC market, but it would succeed in such a business environment where the business are controlled by several big corps.

  3. DRM by ukryule · · Score: 5, Informative
    Whoo-hoo! DRM for cell phones!

    I initially thought this was a bit of flamebait from Michael, but check this out from their FAQ:

    Q: Which key enabling technologies are the priorities in the Open Mobile Alliance?

    A: The companies involved in the alliance will decide the key enabling technologies jointly. However, it is evident that Multimedia Messaging (MMS), Java and WAP 2.0/XHTML browsing are among the most relevant ones. Some other technologies driving the mobile services market include service enablers such as Digital Rights Management (DRM), authentication, location and presence identification and device management.