What is XMCL?

xmclCentral to the goal of xmcl.org is to serve the need for a central repository for XMCL initiatives and innovation enabled with this standard, including open source XMCL projects.

Digital media commerce requires the integration of rights management systems with proprietary, often incompatible, back-end systems such as e-commerce management, customer relationship management, and asset management. In order to create interoperable digital commerce, including cross-system rights management, rights holders and retailers need a set of standard business rules to define the parameters of media usage - for example, establishing that a piece of content be viewed a certain number of times per payment.

The XMCL Initiative endorsed today by many industry leaders proposes a standard business rule definition language providing rights holders the ability to take existing media business models - such as purchase, rental, video-on-demand, and subscription services - and deploy them on the Internet to generate new commerce opportunities. XMCL will give rights holders the freedom to use multiple back-end systems that interoperate with rights management solutions under a common interchange language.

The XMCL Initiative is supported by a broad array of industry-leading technology and media companies including: Abril Group, Accenture, Adobe Systems, Anystream, America Online, Artesia Technologies, Avid Technology, Bertelsmann, British Telecom's BTopenworld, Clear Channel, Context Media, EMI Recorded Music, eMotion, IBM, IFILM, InterTrust, MGM, Napster, RealNetworks, Rightsline, Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment, Starz Encore Group, Sun Microsystems, Tiscali, Viant, and Virage.

For a standard business rule definition language to be truly successful it must be an open standard developed by the industry through the appropriate standards organizations, where the ideas and interests of the entire content ownership and rights management community can provide contributions and feedback. Standards such as these will be rapidly and widely accepted by industry.