August 1, 2000

Mobile money maker
Digital rights managements for the portable set

We've all heard how digital media delivery systems for secure distribution of audio, video, and text to consumer PCs not only protect against copyright infringement, but ensure revenue from delivery of entertainment content. Now a company called LockStream is making digital rights management (DRM) available for small-footprint portable and wireless devices.

Designed expressly for wireless products, LockStream's technology reduces overhead by a factor of 10, compared with other systems, according to the company. LockStream includes patent-pending DRM technology and the Morphing Player, a private-label media player. LockStream supports safe distribution by encoding purchased content on the fly for each consumer, storing protected media in encrypted form, and making each distributed copy as unique as a fingerprint. The company also claims that content secured using its technology is unrecognizable to Napster-like software. The software also renders copies of protected material unusable.

—Margot Suydam