Rights management in architectures for distributed multimedia content applications

There are several initiatives working in the definition and implementation of distributed architectures that enable the development of distributed multimedia applications on top of them, while offering Digital Rights Management (DRM) features. In this chapter, the main features of the MPEG Extensible Middleware (MXM) (ISO/IEC, http://mxm.wg11.sc29.org, 2010) and the new Advanced IPTV terminal (AIT) (ISO/IEC, ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29/WG11 N11230, 2010), which together will form a future second edition of the MXM standard (renamed to Multimedia Service Platform Technologies) are presented. On the other hand, the DMAG’s (Distributed Multimedia Applications Group (DMAG), http://dmag.ac.upc.edu, 2010) Multimedia Information Protection and Management System (MIPAMS) (Torres et al., Springer, Heidelberg, 2006) is also presented, highlighting the common ground and differences between MIPAMS and the standards. A set of usage scenarios is also proposed to show how MIPAMS enables the development of applications, on top of it, which deal with the needs of content creators, distributors and consumers according to different business models.Peer Reviewe