ContentGuard Inc. on Monday released the latest version of its standard language for digital content rights, expanding the concept beyond simply protected digital content to other business models, such as Web services.
The Bethesda, Md., company also released a software developers kit that enables developers to build applications or other solutions using Extensible Rights Markup Language, or XrML.
ContentGuard already has submitted Version 2.0 to two standards bodies—MPEG-21 and TV Anytime—and CEO Michael Miron said on Monday that the company will submit the technology to any standards body that needs a digital rights management tool.
Earlier versions of XrML were primarily content centric, Miron said. Version 2.0 expands the range of the standard. It not only deals with traditional issues such as music, but also ones such as network resources and access to chat rooms.
Also, whereas most digital rights products deal with issuing licenses to people, Version 2.0 deals with licenses to devices and applications as well, Miron said.
“It could be licenses to an application or a person or a group of people who have access to one device,” he said.
The updated XrML also delves more deeply into the issues of rights—can the licensee print the content, or just view it—and the conditions of the license, from payment to time limits.
The updates give businesses a greater number of options for licensing their content and services, Miron said. For example, a financial services firm that uses password access to its online content can now customize and personalize that access for each customer, or for each piece of content and service.
The XrML 2.0 specification is available for free at www.xrml.org.
The XrML 2.0 SDK will be available for download later this week at www.contentguard.com.