Project DReaM White Paper from Sun Labs

An Architectural Overview

September 28, 2005 - DReaM is a Sun Labs initiative to develop a Digital Rights Management (DRM) solution based on open standards that will also integrate with proprietary DRM solutions, thus providing both openness and interoperability for specific customer requirements.

Today's perception of DRM technology is that DRM is a way to keep people from swapping music files and copying DVDs illegally - getting something for nothing. But DRM technology can also support the introduction of new services for everyone, not just for Hollywood and the music industry. The DReaM initiative goes far beyond protection of content in just the Infotainment arena by addressing needs of other market categories, including business and individuals in everyday life, and providing improved levels of content protection that directly protect the content during its entire lifetime rather than simply managing file level access.

The DReaM Architecture is independent of the content type, file and transport formats - whether the content is a time-based media (video, audio, music, games), or a document/data type. The DReaM initiative will leverage the methodology of Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) and introduce rights management services that leverage open standards and support cross-service capabilities. DReaM is based upon technical foundations that have been tested and deployed for over 25 years.

Researchers at Sun Labs are convinced that today's DRM applications only scratch the surface of the possibilities. In order to help move the industry toward an open, scalable and dynamically adaptable solution, Sun launched the Open Media Commons (OMC). OMC will host a community forum where the technical, legal and source code issues related to DReaM will be discussed in an open manner. Sun has committed that DReaM will be open sourced without royalty.

With the market for Digital Rights Management (DRM) predicted by Jupiter Research to grow to $274 million by 2008 from just $36 million in 2003, Sun is determined to unlock the full potential of the DRM market.

For more information, download the Project DReaM Architectural Overview.