The World Wide Web Consortium has begun the formal process of ratifying a digital rights management standard for the Internet.
The standard is known as Encrypted Media Extensions and has been developed by engineers from Microsoft, Google and Netflix.
It is aimed at stopping the ripping of video and other content from high-quality streams that are encrypted.
The latest draft of the EME standard was issued on 16 March and sent to W3C members. Whether it is adopted or not depends on how the members vote.
{loadposition sam08}Smaller non-profits pay US$2250 as annual membership fees, while larger corporations pay up to US$77,000. Members have until 13 April to register their opinions.
If the EME is approved, it will set the standard for browsers and video streaming software.
Three formal objections have been raised:
- inadequate protection for users;
- difficulties in supporting the specification in free software projects; and
- lack of a covenant regarding anti-circumvention regulations.
Despite this, the standard is expected to be adopted, with Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee having endorsed it.