IBM To Put Digital Rights Management In Content Manager

IBM is aiming for a beta release of the J2EE version of its existing Electronic Media Management System (EMMS) sometime this year, said Paul Rettig, director of Digital Media Development and Services Content and the Info Integration Software Group.

Rettig would not commit to a timetable for delivering the digital rights capability in Content Manager. The next version of Content Manager is due out in the first half of this year.

"This has got elements that can be used across the middleware space and will be, and that is why it does not necessarily have to be tied to a given release of Content Manager, although we may end up doing it that way," said Rettig.

Rettig said the J2EE digital rights management software will be implemented across IBM's entire middleware software portfolio, including in Lotus Notes and Tivoli system management.

"The key is this becomes an enabler for base middleware as opposed to a stand-alone, off-to-the-side application."

Once the software is available as a feature in Content Manager, it will also be able to be used with IBM's WebSphere offering, said Rettig.

IBM has increased its research and development spending by 25 percent in the digital rights management segment as it gears up for a battle with rival Microsoft, which is also developing a digital rights management offering.

Rettig, who has profit and loss responsibility for the digital rights management software offerings, has a team of 40 developers working on the J2EE software in Boca Raton, Fla.

Microsoft is aiming to get its digital rights management server, code-named Tungsten, to beta this summer and in final form by year's end.

Rettig characterized the Microsoft offering as more of a consumer product with a desktop-centric orientation, while the IBM offering will be focused squarely on the Global Fortune 1000.

"We are focused on those companies that want to be able to manage all of their assets no matter what format it is," he said. "What Microsoft and others are often dealing with are audio and video."

IBM, he said, wants to provide an offering that can work across industry segments such as health care.

Currently ,the bulk of IBM's existing EMMS product is sold through the company's direct-sales arm, said Rettig. He did not have any targets for digital rights management software sales through solution providers.