Digital Rights Network

The European Commission's DG Enterprise section as part of their 2006 work programme in the area of Technology for Innovation/INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRIES and E-business are looking at ICT Standardization: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/standards/ict_index_en.htm

Full details of the ICT Standardization Work progamme are in this pdf: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ict/policy/standards/wp2006.pdf which contains the following section referencing to DRM (p.11):

7. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND COUNTERFEITING

Action 31: Further to the standardisation work already initiated, additional efforts are required with regard to interoperability of different DRM systems. Although Directive 2001/29/EC limits itself, inter alias, to the legal framework applicable to technological protection measures, these provisions can only deliver their intended effect if user- friendly, reliable and interoperable DRM systems are available to the creative industries. In this context, a follow-up of already achieved standardisation work should be considered with a focus on particular markets such as current and next generation consumer electronics, including DVB-Content Protection & Copy Management (DVB-CPCM), as well as mobile handheld devices, including their interoperability with computer and consumer electronic devices. [emphasis added]

Sun Microsystems have announced plans for an open-source DRM system, to be launched formally next Monday at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's Aspen Summit. The system, called the Open Media Commons, will be based on Sun's Project DReaM. For more details, see Sun's press release.

The Norwegian government is taking large steps in their software policy: everybody in the public sector has to develop a plan for use of open source solutions within 2006. The Norwegian Minister of Modernization, Morton A. Meyer, presented new plan for information technology in Norway called “eNorge – the digital leap", where one of the points concerned open standards and open source. The details are not yet finalized, but the plan stipulate these objectives for standardization and open source: