Who Will M Your DRM?

David Opderbeck:

The MPEG Licensing Association, a consortium of companies that licenses patent right relating to MPEG 4 audio and video technology, is seeking to serve as an industry standards-setting forum for DRM systems. In one way, this seems like a good development — let a private DRM market develop and regulate itself. In another way, however, it has some frightening potential — let a consortium of media companies effectively determine the scope of copyright and fair use through DRM standards that cannot be circumvented under the DMCA.

Completely unrelatedly, David also reports that James Earl Jones confirmed in a talk at Seton Hall this week that "he has several minutes of dialogue in Star Wars 3 after Anakin Skywalker falls into a volcano and is outfitted with the Darth Vader garb."