ContentGuard, Inc. has launched version 2.0 of its eXtensible rights Markup Language (XrML), which broadens the range of business models available to digital content and Web Services providers. ContentGuard has also released a Software Developer’s Kit to. ContentGuard also confirmed that it will hand control of XrML to an international standards organization. The company is currently in discussions with several standards organizations about accepting this governance role. ContentGuard plans to propose XrML 2.0 to any standards organization seeking a Rights Language. Within the last week such proposals have been made to MPEG-21 and TV Anytime. XrML 2.0 expands the capabilities of a Digital Rights Language to now also allow developers to establish the rights and conditions needed to access various Web Services. As part of a trusted environment, XrML can be used to apply rights to a wide variety of content and services to enable custom tailoring of digital offerings. The XrML 2.0 specification is available free at www.xrml.org. XrML 2.0 is extensible and compliant with XML namespaces using XML schema. In addition, XrML 2.0 extensions can be designed for specific industries or with the inclusion of other elements, such as resource-level metadata standards like ONIX. The XrML 2.0 SDK is available for download. www.contentguard.com