US DRM specialist Widevine now says that it is the only DRM that can be used with Microsoft Silverlight, all recent Windows Media versions and with Adobe Flash ‘ to protect them all at once. It seems to delight in targeting Microsoft environments and is now trying to position itself as a viable alternative to Windows Media DRM and the soon to be launched PlayReady.
It was only at NAB that Widevine tried to point out, far too politely in our view, that clients were demanding from Microsoft a tried and tested DRM system while they waited for PlayReady to be completed ‘ and Microsoft approached Widevine to fill the gap.
Widevine had already announced a year ago its compatibility with Adobe Flash Video by working with On2 Technologies, the codec company now famous for supplying its codec to Macromedia to include in its Flash video, to protect content prepared by its Flix for Flash encoding engine and publishing product.
Widevine is perhaps the most aggressive of the IPTV DRM specialists in chasing a complete product lines across all types of popular web video and is now trying to position itself as an alternative to Windows Media DRM and the emerging PlayReady. PlayReady itself was announced in February 2007, but is still not complete. It is supposed to have support for domains and portable device copying.