Project DReaM is a Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...

 project whose aim is to produce an "interoperable DRM

Digital rights management

Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

 architecture implementing standardized interfaces and processes for the interoperability of DRM systems". DReaM is an acronym that stands for "DRM everywhere/available". Sun's primary goal in creating Project DReaM is to release an industry standard and royalty-free digital rights management standard

Standardization

Standardization is the process of developing and implementing technical standards.The goals of standardization can be to help with independence of single suppliers , compatibility, interoperability, safety, repeatability, or quality....

.

There are several key characteristics of Project DReaM that make it unique:

• Network identity focused: Project DReaM approaches DRM (and CAS) from a network identity management
  Identity management
  Identity management is a broad administrative area that deals with identifying individuals in a system and controlling access to the resources in that system by placing restrictions on the established identities of the individuals.Identity management is multidisciplinary and covers many...
  
   focused perspective, rather than simply a device-centric approach.
• Interoperability: Project DReaM uses an open approach and fully specifies everything necessary to build heterogeneous, interoperable, vendor neutral implementations.
• Not another security through obscurity approach: Project DReaM's architecture does not follow the traditional model of security through obscurity
  Security through obscurity
  Security through obscurity is a pejorative referring to a principle in security engineering, which attempts to use secrecy of design or implementation to provide security...
  
   which must maintain a closed source code base in order to operate securely.
• Royalty-free design model: Project DReaM is designed to be royalty free, allowing developers to avoid encumbered technology that carries onerous licensing costs. In addition to employing CDDL licensing terms, Project DReaM will rely upon other models for assuring royalty free usage such as using a Patent Commons
  Patent Commons
  The Patent Commons Project was launched on November 15, 2005 by the Open Source Development Labs . The core of the project is an online patent commons reference library aggregating and documenting information about patent-related pledges and other legal solutions directed at the open-source...
  
   approach.

On 22 August 2005, Sun announced that it was opening up Project DReaM as part of their Open Media Commons

Open Media Commons

The Open Media Commons, sometimes referred to as the Open Media Commons initiative, is a computer industry group whose goal is to "develop open, royalty-free digital rights management and codec solutions"...

 initiative. It has been released under the Common Development and Distribution License

Common Development and Distribution License

Common Development and Distribution License is a free software license, produced by Sun Microsystems, based on the Mozilla Public License , version 1.1....

(CDDL).

External links

• OpenMediaCommons.org
• Project DReaM press release
• https://dream.dev.java.net/