Another cross-industry DRM effort

From PRNewswire:

LOS ANGELES, July 14 (PRNewswire) — IBM, Intel Corporation, Microsoft, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), Sony, Toshiba, The Walt Disney Company, and Warner Bros. Studios today announced the formation of Advanced Access Content System License Administrator (AACS LA), a cross-industry effort that develops, promotes and licenses technology designed to enhance digital entertainment experiences. This technology will facilitate the ability to enjoy exciting, new, flexible entertainment experiences for consumers in stand-alone, networked home and portable devices.

By “enhance digital entertainment experiences,” of course, they mean “have enough DRM that we’re willing to release our content at all, preferably without alienating all our legitimate customers.” Not clear how they intend to achieve this DRM equivalent of the Philosopher’s Stone, but they’ve got a lot of heavy-hitters involved…

More details are promised in coming days at http://www.aacsla.com/.