Adobe Systems has unleashed a new software product that will enable content providers to add digital-rights management (DRM) protection to media files. What’s more, Adobe Flash Media Rights Management Server also allows media outlets to limit access to live Webcasts as well as deliver pay-per-view programs on demand.
“The new capabilities in Flash Media Rights Management Server provide media publishers with the option to help control and protect their unique media assets,” said Adobe Vice President of Dynamic Media Jim Guerard.
Controlling Content
Content managers will be able to use Adobe’s new software to specify a range of parameters governing user access limits and media expiration. And they will be able to alter a user’s access rights even after the file has been distributed.
One of the core strengths of Adobe Acrobat is its ability to lock content, noted IDC Program Director Al Hilwa. “So it’s pretty good for Adobe to also be able to offer the same protection for media content,” he said.
The server features full integration with Adobe AIR — a new and potentially game-changing technology that was brewed in the hallways of Macromedia years before it was acquired by Adobe, Hilwa noted.
“If AIR takes off, the economics of a new generation of rich Internet appliances that do away with or completely embed the traditional computer operating system might be at hand,” Hilwa said.
The tight integration of Adobe’s server with Adobe AIR and Adobe Media Player — the first consumer application expressly designed to run on the AIR platform — means video content can be viewed in the Adobe player in both offline and online modes. Content providers using Media Player will be able to prohibit the later reuse or remixing of their programs.
Adobe AIR
“To understand Adobe AIR better, we need a little context,” Hilwa said….