AfterDawn: News

The European Commission will launch a probe into dealings between Microsoft and Time Warner to take giant ownership of ContentGuard, a US DRM company. The deal could lead to Microsoft extending its monopoly in the Operating Systems business, to the locks and keys used to protect distributed digital content.

"It appears to the Commission that the transaction might possibly create or strengthen a dominant position by Microsoft in the market for Digital Right Management (DRM) solutions," said the European Commissions office in a statement. The technology used by ContentGuard was devised by Xerox. Time Warner bought most of Xerox's share in April while Redmond increased its holding in the company. Sony is also a licensee. On January 6th 2005, the investigation report.



Source:
The Register

Written by: James Delahunty @ 25 Aug 2004 6:32