Recently in Digital RIghts Management Category

The recently launched 3M Cloud Library now uses the 3M Cloud-ID, for its login process. The 3M Cloud-ID uses a patron's existing library barcode and PIN to authenticate the patron and allow checkout of eBooks from the 3M Cloud Library, as opposed to using a library ID/PIN for authentication and a separate third party ID/PIN as used by existing eLending providers. 3M Cloud-ID streamlines the user experience by leveraging the credentials a patron already has from the library, making it simple for library patrons to navigate the system, typically with minimal to no assistance from library staff. The 3M Cloud Library offers a growing catalog of material, with new publishing agreements signed with ABC-CLIO, Baker Publishing Group, John Wiley & Sons, Quayside Publishing Group (Fair Winds Press, Quarry Books, Zenith Press and other imprints), Skyhorse Publishing and Workman Publishing. To date, more than 40 publishers have joined the system including HarperCollins, IPG and Random House, bringing the total 3M Cloud Library offering to more than 100,000 titles. The 3M Cloud Library has also added four new beta sites in recent months, with library staff soon to begin training on the system. http://www.3m.com/

Docusign has announced Docusign for Salesforce, which allows users to enter data, initial, date, and sign contracts online, all while updating accounts automatically. Most document types are supported, and processes such as identity management/user authentication, forms/data collection, workflow automation, and storage are provided. Key aspects include: Connect with Documents in the Cloud; Single Sign On with your Salesforce Password; Mobile In-Person Signing; and Share Your Deals with Salesforce Chatter. http://www.docusign.com/ http://www.salesforce.com/   

Atex announced its new Tablet Publishing solution designed to help media companies produce tablet editions using existing staff, skills and systems. In addition to having design for tablets in mind, Atex Tablet editions are also lightweight, making them quicker to download and easier to navigate. Atex Tablet Publishing combines app navigation (scrolling, tapping, etc.) with a user experience developed using HTML5. This approach allows media companies to design editions with hyperlinks, videos and other Web features. There are no bulky PDF files or formats that take minutes to download. By designing the Atex solution in HTML5, Atex ensures that tablet editions will be available on a wide variety of platforms, including the iPad and Android-based devices. For tablet production, Atex Tablet Publishing integrates with existing editorial infrastructures, for multi-purpose content across print and digital products. Article templates are designed for automatic placement on tablet pages. Support for layout-driven workflow and WSYIWYG editing streamlines the content creating and revision process for teasers, headlines and other write-to-fit elements. Editors can review their tablet pages and layouts from a browser, which previews the look-and-feel of the tablet edition. Atex Tablet Publishing is available under the Atex hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) model or as an on-premise solution. www.atex.com

Amazon.com, Inc. announced the launch of Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon Cloud Player for Web, and Amazon Cloud Player for Android. Together, these services are aimed for customers to securely store music in the cloud and play it on any Android device, Mac or PC. Customers can upload their music library to Amazon Cloud Drive and can save any new Amazon MP3 purchases directly to their Amazon Cloud Drive for free. Store Music for Free Customers automatically start with 5 GB of Cloud Drive storage to upload their digital music library, and those who purchase an Amazon MP3 album will be upgraded to 20 GB of Cloud Drive space. New Amazon MP3 purchases saved directly to Cloud Drive are stored for free and do not count against a customer’s storage quota. Files can be stored in AAC or MP3 formats and will be uploaded to Cloud Drive in the original bit rate. Customers can hand-pick particular songs, artists, albums or playlists to upload or simply upload their entire music library. Cloud Player for Web Customers who have a computer with a Web browser can listen to their music. Cloud Player for Web currently supports Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari for Mac, and Chrome. Cloud Player for Web lets customers manage their music with download and streaming options. Customers don’t need to worry about regularly updating software on their computer to enjoy music, and Amazon MP3 customers can continue to use iTunes and Windows Media Player to add their music to their iPods and MP3 players. Cloud Player for Android Cloud Player for Android is now bundled into the new version of the Amazon MP3 App; it includes the full Amazon MP3 Store and the mobile version of Cloud Player. Customers can use the app to play music stored on their Cloud Drive and music stored locally on their device. Features include the ability to search and browse by artist, album or song, create playlists and download music from Cloud Drive. Secure Storage Customers never need to worry about losing their music collection to a hard drive crash again. Files are securely stored on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and each file is uploaded to Cloud Drive in its original bit rate. Customers can buy music anywhere and know that their MP3s are safely stored in Cloud Drive and accessible from any device.  Cloud Drive allows customers to upload and store all kinds of digital files; music, photos, videos and documents can be stored securely and are available via web browser on any computer. In addition to the 5 GB of free storage, customers can purchase storage plans starting at $20 a year for 20 GB (or upgrade for 1 year with the purchase of an MP3 album). www.amazon.com/clouddrive

Sony has launched a mobile eBook Reader app for Google Android. It’s now available for download from the Android Market. The app supports Android 2.2 and up, with an iOS (Apple) version expected soon. Reader for Android can read books in EPUB and PDF formats, as well as titles downloaded from Sony’s Reader Store (also supports Adobe DRM). One can adjust the font size and screen brightness from any book, jump to a page, search for text, or add bookmarks. The home screen is divided into a few different sections including recent books, a scrollable list of all your books, favorites, bookmarks, and highlights. There’s also a link the Sony Reader Store, which opens in the web browser. If you already use the Sony Reader Daily Edition (PRS-950SC), you can synchronize your bookmarks, highlights, and reading position between the Android app and the Daily Edition so you can pick up reading on either device where you left off. If you’re not a Sony Reader user, the app comes with 6 free eBooks including 3 classics and 3 newer titles. http://ebookstore.sony.com/rme/

Adobe Systems Incorporated announced that Google has licensed Adobe Content Server 4 software as its ebook content protection solution for Google eBooks. As a cross-platform solution, Adobe Content Server enables consumers to purchase or lend ebooks through thousands of points-of-purchase without being tied to one store. With support of the Adobe Reader Mobile software development kit (SDK) on more than 85 devices and applications, consumers can download and read protected ebooks from Google eBooks in both PDF and EPUB format. Supported devices include a broad variety of platforms: smartphones, tablets and desktops, as well as dedicated reading devices like the Sony Reader or the Barnes & Noble nook. With more than 13 million downloads of Adobe Digital Editions, a free software application for acquiring, managing and reading ebooks, users can transfer their digital content to their netbooks and desktops, and by taking advantage of a growing number of mobile applications, users can also consume ebooks from Google eBooks on tablets like the iPad. Adobe Content Server is part of Adobe's end-to-end Digital Publishing Solution for ebooks with Adobe InDesign CS5, Adobe Digital Editions and Adobe Reader Mobile SDK. The solution allows users to download and read ebooks from Google eBooks without being locked into a proprietary file format or device. With the Reader Mobile SDK, Adobe enables companies to offer smartphones and reading devices that can easily download, manage, and display ebooks based on PDF and the open EPUB file format. With these new types of interactive, branded experiences, publishers can create rich content on tablets, smartphones and other devices that attracts high-value subscribers and advertisers. http://www.adobe.com/

Attributor, provider of DRM solutions, has released it's latest piracy study that quantifies book piracy, including the number of downloads taking place. The latest report in January 2010 had the lost value from book piracy in the U.S. estimated at $2.8 billion. Attributor has released new research that examines the demand for pirated e-books across the Web and calculates how many people look for pirated e-book material on a daily basis. The study aims to determine the behavior of Internet users with regards to book piracy and highlights the growing problem of online piracy.  Based on this research, Attributor also today announced partnerships with Macmillan and Kensington Publishing Corp. to support its Attributor Protected Badge program, a global campaign to drive consumer awareness about fair trade and distribution of e-books and protection of author royalties. Key findings from the recent study include: 50 percent increase in online searches for pirated downloads throughout the past year; 1.5-3 million daily Google queries for pirated e-books; 20 percent increase in demand for pirated downloads since the iPad became widely available in mid-May 2010; 54 percent increase in pirated e-book demand since August 2009; Proliferation of smaller sites that host and supply pirated e-books – a shift from larger sites like Rapidshare dominating the syndication market; “Breaking Dawn” by Stephanie Meyer registered the most pirated copy searches throughout the study; Widespread international demand, with the largest number of searches during the study originated in the United States (11 percent), India (11 percent) and Mexico (5 percent).  http://www.attributor.com/docs/BookResearch_Attributor_October2010.pdf

ModusLink is making available additional, prepackaged, transaction-based Entitlement Management Solutions to support the demand for digital content offered by business to consumer (B2C) organizations. ModusLink's Entitlement Management Solutions are designed to increase and protect revenue, as well as prevent unauthorized use, access or dissemination of software, digital content or intellectual property (IP). ModusLink's Entitlement Management Solutions are a flexible, integrated set of offerings that act as a gatekeeper to control access to content rather than securing it from unauthorized usage. Key features include media asset management, time- and contract-based automation of subscription renewals and expiration notifications, digital activation of software and hardware capabilities as well as digital and physical product and content delivery. In addition to entitlement services, ModusLink's B2C Entitlement Management Solutions are prepackaged with Web store, shopping cart, catalog, financial management and digital delivery functionality. The solutions include: ModusLink Subscription allows clients to create, maintain, update and renew subscription-based activities, features and products; ModusLink Activation enables clients to turn a product on or off, and to enable or disable product features; and ModusLink Upgrade gives the ability to generate offers to existing customers to upgrade a current product, feature or service. ModusLink continues to support entitlement functionality through its Enterprise Entitlement Solution, which provides comprehensive support for management and control of digital content on a large scale. Typically deployed by B2B companies, the offering is capable of handling high volume and increased complexity such as selling through system integrators (SIs) and value added resellers (VARs). All of ModusLink's Entitlement Management Solutions can be integrated with ModusLink's e-Business Suite of Solutions, providing a range of services from the shopping cart, contact center support, customer loyalty programs and more. http://www.moduslink.com/

FatWire Software, a provider of Web Experience Management (WEM) solutions, announced that it is offering the newest release of EMC Documentum Media WorkSpace, as a central component of the FatWire Digital Asset Management solution. FatWire offers Media WorkSpace, EMC Documentum Digital Asset Manager and EMC Documentum Content Transformation Services as FatWire’s comprehensive solution for Digital Asset Management. FatWire selected these EMC products for their capabilities enabling marketers to work with rich media as a part of multi-channel marketing campaigns. The FatWire Digital Asset Management solution is a component of the strategic partnership between FatWire and EMC announced earlier this year, in which EMC also offers FatWire Web Experience Management as their solution for the web, and the two companies work together to deliver solutions for interactive marketing. http://www.fatwire.com/ http://www.emc.com/

Open Text Corporation, a provider of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software, announced Rights Management Services (RMS) for the Open Text ECM Suite designed to safeguard confidential and sensitive information from unauthorized uses even after it leaves the content repository. Though the content may be stored in a secure repository, once users have the right to read a document and save it on their local drives, the content becomes vulnerable. Open Text Rights Management Services lets organizations augment their strategies with protection that remains with the content. Rights Management Services works by enforcing content protection constraints for documents and other content based on rules such as "do not email," "do not print" or "do not save locally." The application then encrypts the content and the publishing license together. The content and rights remain encrypted during transport, extending security to wherever the content travels. When a recipient opens rights-protected content, a request goes to a rights management server to validate the user's credentials and usage rights. Round-trip scenarios are also supported allowing editing and uploading of new versions that retain the rights management constraints. As a shared service in the ECM Suite, Rights Management Services are also available to any content application in the organization. Protection spans Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007 applications as well as PDF, HTML, engineering drawing file formats, image files, ZIP, archives among others. Users can also read and protect content viewed on BlackBerry smartphones. The Open Text RMS solution takes advantage of the Active Directory Rights Management Service from Microsoft. Open Text is also partnering with both GigaTrust and Liquid Machines, to add support for specialty content types such as computer-aided design (CAD) files, Visio, Adobe PDF, graphic files, and many other file formats, plus rights management support for documents available via BlackBerry devices. Open Text Rights Management Services for the Open Text ECM Suite is available now. Partner offerings are also available now directly through the partners. http://www.opentext.com http://www.gigatrust.com http://www.liquidmachines.com/