XMCL
The Re-Birth Of Internet Media Commerce

Interoperability is the buzzword for the future of the Internet. Like many other technologies, media distribution on the net too was waiting to be developed in to an interoperable standardized form. Just like the XML/SOAP interface promises to redefine e-commerce transactions; a similar kind of standard was needed to support the rapidly growing digital media market. IBM, InterTrust, MGM and others have joined RealNetworks in support of a common media commerce language that attempts to plug this hole.
The eXtensible Media Commerce Language (XMCL) is an open XML-based language designed to establish industry-wide standards for Internet media commerce. By standardizing the rules for how content can be played in a way that is independent of codecs, digital rights management systems, and e-commerce systems, XMCL will greatly simplify deployment and accelerate the market for digital media commerce over the Internet.

Media companies everywhere are expanding their businesses into the new arena of digital media over the Internet. As a result, fulfilling the content demands of users is becoming a challenge. At the same time there is also a need to establish viable and practical business models. It is clear that the existing approaches to digital media rights management have fallen short of the expectations of both media companies and consumers. A void exists that needs to be filled.

Traditional media distribution is estimated to be a USD 170 billion a year market in the United States alone in 2002, according to Kagan World Media. Since the mid-90s, the delivery and consumption of digital media over the Internet has grown at an amazing rate, far outpacing growth rates in traditional mediums. As a result, many media businesses are expanding their focus to include digital media distribution.

Although today's Internet content is largely free, users widely acknowledge that they are willing to pay for access to useful and deserving content. For example, a majority (70%) of Napster users have indicated their willingness to pay a reasonable monthly fee for a digital music subscription service.

This is an era of increasingly omni-present and effortless digital media distribution. There has been an astounding progress in the quality of audio, video, and rich media presentations. Concurrently, there has been a great advancement in technology for delivering these presentations. This in turn has introduced new challenges for the widespread adoption of this new medium by businesses. In particular, the work needed to preserve content owners' interests is still in its early stages.

To transform this digital media distribution into a meaningful commercial venture will be a challenge. The industry is needs a standard method of describing the business rules for a digital 'rental' model. This would include rules governing the duration of playback allowed, the number of plays allowed during that time period, and when the rental period begins (e.g., from the date of payment, or from the first play of that content). This absence of standards has given rise to conflicting approaches to describing business rules. The industry is thus left with a costly, inflexible and non-standard approach.

In order to create interoperable rights management solutions, rights holders need a set of standard business rules to define the parameters of media usage. RealNetworks will submit the XMCL proposal to the appropriate standards organization, and will work with industry leaders to ensure the initiative evolves into a widely accepted standard.

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