Coral Consortium
Encyclopedia
The Coral Consortium was founded in Fall 2004 by Hewlett-Packard
Corporation, Intertrust Technologies Corporation, Koninklijke Philips
Electronics N.V., Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic
), Samsung
Electronics Co., Ltd, Sony
Corporation and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.
that allows them to exchange protected content securely. A device used by a family member wishing to play a music file that is stored on another family-owned device can use Coral to obtain a new copy (or license) in the correct format, with the Coral infrastructure managing the necessary permissions and translation of rights to the new device. In theory this should greatly ease the portability of protected media files between devices.
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
Corporation, Intertrust Technologies Corporation, Koninklijke Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
Electronics N.V., Matsushita
Matsushita
Matsushita is a Japanese place name and surname which means "below the pine tree" and may refer to:-Companies:*Matsushita Electric Industrial, now Panasonic Corporation, a multinational electronics corporation based in Kadoma, Japan...
Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic
Panasonic
Panasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...
), Samsung
Samsung
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
Electronics Co., Ltd, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
Corporation and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.
Promoter Members
- Hewlett-PackardHewlett-PackardHewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
Corporation (founding member) - IFPIIFPIThe International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a not-for-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland...
- Intertrust Technologies CorporationInterTrust TechnologiesIntertrust Technologies Corporation invents, develops, and licenses software, technologies and intellectual property for Digital Rights Management and trusted computing. The company holds over 150 patents and has over 300 patent applications pending worldwide...
(founding member) - Koninklijke PhilipsPhilipsKoninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
Electronics N.V. (founding member) - LG ElectronicsLG ElectronicsLG Electronics is a global electronics and telecommunications company headquartered in Yeouido, Seoul, South Korea. The company operates its business through five divisions: mobile communications, home entertainment, home appliance, air conditioning and business solution...
- NBC UniversalNBC UniversalNBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
, Inc. - PanasonicPanasonicPanasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...
Corporation (founding member) - Samsung ElectronicsSamsung ElectronicsSamsung Electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul...
Co., Ltd (founding member) - Sony Corporation (founding member)
- Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. (founding member)
Contributor Members
- British Telecommunications PLC
- Cloakware Inc.
- EMI Music
- Gibson Guitar CorporationGibson Guitar CorporationThe Gibson Guitar Corporation, formerly of Kalamazoo, Michigan and currently of Nashville, Tennessee, manufactures guitars and other instruments which sell under a variety of brand names...
- Inca Networks
- Kenwood CorporationKenwood- Places :England* Kenwood , a part of Hampstead Heath, London, the location of** Kenwood House* Kenwood, in the parish of Kenton, Devon* Kenwood, St. George's Hill, John Lennon's home in Weybridge, SurreyUnited States* Kenwood, California...
- Motion Picture Association of America
- MotorolaMotorolaMotorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
- PacketVideoPacketVideoPacketVideo Corporation or PV is a San Diego-based company that produces software for wireless multimedia, including the display of video on mobile handsets.-History:...
- Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
- SecureMedia Inc.
- Sony BMG
- Starz Entertainment, LLC
- STMicroelectronicsSTMicroelectronicsSTMicroelectronics is an Italian-French electronics and semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.While STMicroelectronics corporate headquarters and the headquarters for EMEA region are based in Geneva, the holding company, STMicroelectronics N.V. is registered in Amsterdam,...
, N.V. - ThomsonThomson-People:* Thomson , includes a list of people with this name and a description of its origin-Science:*thomson , a unit for mass-to-charge ratio, symbol: Th; named in honor of J. J...
- Universal Music GroupUniversal Music GroupUniversal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
- Verimatrix, Inc.
- VeriSignVeriSignVerisign, Inc. is an American company based in Dulles, Virginia that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains and the .cc and .tv country-code...
, Inc. - Warner Music GroupWarner Music GroupWarner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
Concept
Coral proposes an architecture whereby devices using different DRM technologies are able to join a DomainDomain name
A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....
that allows them to exchange protected content securely. A device used by a family member wishing to play a music file that is stored on another family-owned device can use Coral to obtain a new copy (or license) in the correct format, with the Coral infrastructure managing the necessary permissions and translation of rights to the new device. In theory this should greatly ease the portability of protected media files between devices.
Additional Information
Much of the Coral documentation requires the reader to agree to legal conditions, so it is not very easy for most members of the public to examine the proposals. However there is a fairly full FAQ document available (Coral Consortium FAQ Document).Possible Limitations
While Coral is a novel approach to DRM interoperability, doubts have been raised in some quarters as to whether it is really suitable for all media types.- The approach of obtaining a second file protected under the second DRM system assumes that such a file is available, and also assumes that both DRM vendors (and service providers) will cooperate with Coral. At the time of writing, Apple is not a Coral member company.
- The Coral membership leans heavily to music companies; other content types (e.g. video, TV, games) are not so strongly represented.
- The bandwidth requirements (and download delay) for obtaining a second copy of a large file such as an HD TV broadcast are considerable.
- Some Europeans have expressed concerns over consumer privacy and anonymity, if all such content moves involve a "phone home" to a Coral service in the cloud.