ObjectCube Ships Turnkey DRM Solution
By: Martin Murphy

TORONTO, Jun 10, 2005 – Video solutions developer ObjectCube, which earlier this year jettisoned its mainstream clients to focus entirely on the adult market, has launched a user-managed digital rights management program.
The four-year-old company partners with content providers such as AEBN, NakedSword, Adam & Eve and Gunzblazing for video-on-demand content and introduced its multi-tier DRM plan as an ease-of-use alternative for customers.

“Our solution means that no one will be forced to relinquish ownership of their content to a DRM provider,” Objectcube owner and CTO Jay Janarthanan said. “Unfortunately, that’s what firms are forced to do when they DRM a movie or music using a third-party provider’s DRM URL.”

Janarthanan told XBiz that ObjectCube began with a single employee — himself — writing thousands of lines of DRM code for AEBN in 2002. As AEBN grew from seven employees to about 150, Janarthanan now has a 25-person team of developers working in Russia and at ObjectCube's Toronto office.

With constantly-morphing DRM standards, many companies delegate DRM configuration to clients. In this case, ObjectCube will provide a standalone package for clients that is ready to go out of the box.

A MYSQL server is configured on a Windows 2003 server to run ObjectCube’s turnkey DRM solution. Users receive the source code for the DRM application and access to the database that holds the DRM keys. This allows them to change the software or add new functions as needed.

This scheme gives users a little more control than source-managed DRM plans, according to Janarthanan.

With source-managed plans, “customers are the mercy of the DRM provider, and if the provider goes out of business, the content also stops working," Janarthanan said. "(Customers) get locked in for the rest of the content’s life cycle.”

Janarthanan gave the example of PlayaDRM, which this week announced it was closing its doors. "If PlayaDRM manages your content rights," he said, "you no longer have access to your content when the company goes under."

ObjectCube charges a one-time fee for its DRM plan, which can rely on client-based hardware or on ObjectCube’s array of servers in Canada.