DMDA Interoperability Working Group (IWG)

The IWG was suspended June 2003. 

Original Mission:

The DMDA-IWG mission is the quick establishment and acceptance of an interoperability and content protection standard for portable and networked audio devices.

The lack of open and interoperable standards is a significant impediment to the growth of legitimate markets for the digital delivery of entertainment content to the consumer. The Digital Media Device Association's Interoperability Working Group (DMDA-IWG) will develop or otherwise adopt one or more specifications for the lawful consumption and exchange of music in digital form on portable and networked audio devices that encourages competition and allows customers freedom of choice.

Process:

Participants in the DMDA-IWG do not need to be members of DMDA, but must agree to the DMDA-IWG Terms of Participation. Participants meet approximately monthly to document specific industry requirements for an interoperability standard.

Acknowledging the need for interoperability in the existing market place of open content, we envision a future where devices can interoperate and can store and play both open and rights-managed content. Interoperability of open content is a logical preliminary step to solving the more complex issue of interoperability of content usage rules and digital rights management systems. Therefore the IWG work effort has been divided into two phases.

Phase 1: Devices connected via the same interface will be able to identify each other, report capabilities, share meta-data, deliver content and store or play it.  The solution must be able to support security mechanisms that will be defined in a follow-on specification. Participants have drafted a Call for Proposals for solutions suitable for achieving these objectives.

Phase 2: Devices will report and share rights-management information and abide by supported content usage rules, to be defined in a future Call for Proposals.