MpDRM
mpDRM is a content independent Digital Rights Management (DRM) system developed and licensed by Protect Software GmbH, a German corporation with headquarters located in Dortmund, Germany and subsidiaries in Canada and the United States.
mpDRM is internally based on the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) standard but is accessed on the server- and client-side through the Microsoft DRM interfaces in use at most online video sales services.
mpDRM is often referenced as “Motion Picture Digital Rights Management” but stands actually for “Multi-Purpose Digital Rights Management” as it supports not only video but also audio and even software containers.
mpDRM is most frequently used with FluxDVD files to control the playback, burn and export processes based on restrictions defined by the content owners and imposed by the content distributors via DRM licenses.
Applying mpDRM to a content container
Tools for applying DRM to content containers are available from Protect Software after signing an NDA. If mpDRM is used together with fluxDVD files, the tools can also be retrieved directly from www.fluxdvd.com.
Advantages
mpDRM is based on an open standard but can still act as plug-in replacement for any service using Microsoft DRM. It is format independent and very secure and allows a bigger set of rights compared with Microsoft DRM, mot notably the possibility to define a “Burn to DVD” count which is a concept unknown to Microsoft DRM.
Criticism
mpDRM has been criticized as being a Windows only solution. Also, as with any DRM system the use of mpDRM may lead to unwanted limitations regarding the use of licensed content on multiple platforms and over longer time scales.