Consumer-Electronics Firms Join
To Develop Antipiracy Software

Some of the biggest consumer-electronics companies are jointly developing new technology to control how consumers use digital content in the home.

The companies -- Sony Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Philips Electronics NV and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., maker of Panasonic-brand products -- today are announcing what they are calling the Marlin Joint Development Association. The group, which includes a Silicon Valley company called Intertrust Technologies Corp., plans to develop standard specifications for software that can prevent digital movies and music from being improperly copied. It also intends to enforce rules about how such content can be played and shared.

Fears of piracy have discouraged content owners from allowing some high-definition video and other digital programming from being distributed in the home. Makers of devices such as digital recorders and DVD players, meanwhile, are worried about adopting incompatible antipiracy technologies, which could mean a protected movie or song might play on one gadget but not another.

Such technology is known by the acronym DRM, for digital rights management. Microsoft Corp. has been trying to get hardware makers to use its proprietary DRM software. Other companies, such as Apple Computer Inc., have developed such technology for their own products. A confusing array of joint DRM projects have also popped up, addressing specific problems such as video on a new-generation of disks that are expected to succeed DVDs.

What makes Marlin different, backers say, is mainly that it is emanating from some of the biggest brands in consumer electronics. "The CE industry has been pretty quiet," said Talal Shamoon, Intertrust's chief executive. Now, they are "detonating their DRM," he said.

But Michael McGuire, an analyst at Gartner Inc., noted that the new effort has yet to show it will win support from content holders, such as movie studios. The proliferation of DRM efforts also could confuse consumers. "If I'm a user, I'm wondering, is this going to make things more complicated for me?" Mr. McGuire said.

Some of Marlin's current members also are likely to consider multiple DRM options. Sony, for example, said it is too early to say whether it will favor Marlin over its proprietary DRM technologies. "We are actively evaluating opportunities to use Marlin," said Mack Araki, a Sony spokesman. But "I can't comment on specific plans today."

Marlin comes on the heels of an earlier joint effort, called the Coral Consortium, that had some common members with Marlin. Coral, however, was designed to let different DRM programs work together, rather than establish a specific piece of software as a standard for hardware companies to adopt, Mr. Shamoon said. Both efforts were partly based on technology developed by Intertrust, a company that was jointly purchased in 2003 by Sony, Philips and other investors.

Success of earlier such efforts has been mixed. While DRM systems usually make piracy more difficult, hackers have successfully cracked some high-profile protection schemes, including FairPlay, the copy-protection software Apple uses for music it sells through its iTunes Music Store.

Write to Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com