NeuStar To Work on Movie Download Anti-Piracy System

One of the smartest and most interesting companies that I have had the pleasure of every working with is NeuStar.  I think it was around November 2001 that I first met Mark Foster.  Mark was CTO for NeuStar at the time. To this day, Mark is one of the absolute smartest individuals in technology that I have ever met.

In 2001, when Mark explained to me the history of number portability, I was amazed with the elegance of NeuStar's design and implementation.   At that meeting I said that NeuStar should consider joining Project Liberty.  After returning to I called John Gage and said that I would like to introduce John to the NeuStar Executive team.   NeuStar ending up joining Project Liberty and was a key contributor on the Discover Specification.

An article in the Washington Post details NeuStar being selected to implement a movie download anti-piracy system.  As the article by Mike Musgrove brings out:

"The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem announced this month that Neustar, formerly a division of Lockheed Martin, will operate an upcoming "digital rights locker" system, designed to let users who legally purchase movies online view that content on smartphones, laptops or the living room TV.

The DECE technology, which is in the design stage, aims to give consumers more flexibility with the content they purchase while still employing digital rights management tools designed to discourage piracy. "Buy Once, Play Anywhere" is the marketing pitch; a launch date has not been announced."

I love the "Buy Once, Play Anywhere"  Gee, I wonder where they got that idea from? Sounds a lot like Java's "Write Once, Run Anywhere" to me :-)

If any company can tackle this very important and tough challenge, it is the brilliant individuals at NeuStar.