Call for Proposals for Portable Audio and Video Devices

Executive Summary

This document is a Call for Proposals (CfP) for Solutions describing an implementation of Portable Audio and Video (PAV) Devices capable of using Governed Content according to the requirements laid down in the attached document DMP0146. The precise meaning of “Governed Content” and other terms used in this CfP is given in the attached document DMP0147.

This Call is issued by the Digital Media Project (DMP). More information about DMP can be found in the attached document DMP0148. Anybody, irrespective of its DMP membership, is entitled to respond to this Call. Deadline for responses is 20^th of October 2004.

Proponents who are not DMP members will be invited to attend the DMP General Assembly to be held in Barcelona on 27^th to 29^th of October and to the pre-meeting on 26^th of October to discuss the proposals and will be given access to the other proposals.

Proponents are advised that DMP seeks Solutions, or parts of Solutions that are licensable on a Fair and Non-Discriminatory basis. Moreover DMP may request proponents to release to DMP a source code software implementation of (the parts of their) Solution that will be retained.

1          Introduction

The Digital Media Project (DMP) is a not-for-profit organisation registered in Geneva with the mission to  “promote continuing successful development, deployment and use of Digital Media that respect the rights of creators and rights holders to exploit their works, the wish of end users to fully enjoy the benefits of Digital Media and the interests of various value-chain players to provide products and services, according to the principles laid down in the Digital Media Manifesto”. Please see the attached document DMP0148 for more information about DMP. 

DMP operates according to a work plan whose current version foresees the development and approval of Technical Specifications for an Interoperable DRM Platform (IDP) and Interoperable End-user Devices (IED) in October 2005 and the development and approval of Recommended Practices for End-to-End Conformance (EEC) in July 2006. 

In response to urgent needs from the industry DMP has decided that it will develop Technical Specifications for Interoperable End-user Devices, called Portable Audio and Video Devices (PAV),  that possess a subset of features of full-fledged Interoperable End-user Devices, the most important being the ability to deal with Governed Content in an interoperable way.  

DMP has defined the requirements for PAVs with the participation of a broad range of interested parties. Solutions for PAVs are the target of this Call for Proposals that invites submissions that fulfil some or all of these requirements. PAV Technical Specifications are planned for a fast track development, and will be approved in April 2005.

2          Antitrust statement on the Digital Media Project

In issuing this Call for Proposals the members of the Digital Media Project make explicit reference to the following clauses of the DMP Statutes that relate to antitrust and competition issues:

Art. 3, para. 5

The business of DMP shall not be conducted for the financial profits of its Members but for their mutual benefits. Discussions about sales levels, methods, channels of distribution, markets, customers, prices or profitability or any other topic which would restrict use of Digital Media are prohibited.

Art. 4.1, para. 3-5

The Members agree to respect all legal provisions and these Statutes concerning DMP. When developing DMP Approved Documents each applicant has to declare himself individually and collectively committed to open competition in the development of DMP Approved Documents. The Members are not restricted in any way from designing, developing, marketing and/or procuring the technologies developed.

Members are not bound to implement or use specific technology standards, or recommendations by virtue of participation in DMP.

Membership in DMP in no way obligates or requires a member to license its patents or technologies to others. If a member chooses to license its patents or technologies, membership in DMP in no way imposes, obligates or requires such member to offer such licenses on any particular terms.

3          Requirements for responding to this Call for Proposals

A proposal shall provide any or all of the following: 

1. Technologies that fulfil one or more PAV requirements;
2. Reference to other relevant standards and specifications, either ready or under development;
3. Comments on the appropriateness of the requirements and/or additional requirements for the PAV Technical Specification. 

Also, a proposal shall include all of the following:

1. A completed Registration Form as found in Annex B;
2. A completed Form of Annex C of which requirements are met and how;

The sole purpose of this form is to identify which requirements are satisfied by which Proponent. The merit of proposals will not be assessed on the number of requirements satisfied.  

Also, a proposal may include: 

1. Evidence of an implementation (e.g. an accompanying demonstrator) including a detailed documented description of the system, and any other relevant information;
2. A description of how PAV Devices may interact with other entities in the value-chain;
3. Means to test conformance of a PAV Device;
4. Any other additional information relevant to help the evaluation of the submission.

4     How to respond

All parties that believe they possess relevant technologies for Portable Audio and Video Devices that satisfy the requirements laid out in DMP0146, hereinafter called “Solutions”, are invited to submit proposals for consideration by DMP. These parties do not necessarily have to be DMP members. The full list of what proponents will be expected to submit can be found below.

Proposals are to be received by: 

Digital Media Project Secretariat
Eurescom GmbH
Schlosswolfsbrunnen Weg 35
D-69118 Heidelberg
Germany

either by postal mail or (preferred) electronically, by 2004/10203T23:00 GMT.

Proposals are to be formatted as Word or HTML documents. If submitted by mail, they must be provided on a 1.44 MByte floppy disk or an ISO9660 CD-R.

Pre-registration is encouraged, as it will help in planning the evaluation process. Please use Annex A to pre-register, fill it out, and send it as an email attachment or by fax or email to the DMP Secretariat by 2004/09/15.

5          Handling of Proposals

The DMP Secretariat will post the Proposals to the password-protected DMP web site on 2004/10/21.

An ad hoc meeting of DMP experts will be held on 26 October in Barcelona to hear presentations made by proponents. Therefore all proponents, irrespective of their DMP membership, will be given access to all other proponents’ proposals.

Starting with the ad hoc meeting and continuing to GA04 (27-29 October) at the same venue, the DMP experts will evaluate the proposals, with the help of proponents, against the PAV requirements given in DMP0146.

The evaluation will lead to either a selection of one proposal or of relevant elements from different proposals and their integration, and to the development of the 1st Working Draft (WD1) of  the PAV Technical Specification based upon the responses to this Call.

However, DMP reserves the right to adopt none, one, or a combination of several proposals. All decisions will be made according to the DMP Procedures of Work.

Notwithstanding the rule of attendance at General Assemblies by DMP members only, proponents will be admitted to GA04 irrespective of their membership in DMP. Attendance in further General Assemblies, however, will require membership.

6          Evaluation criteria

Solutions that will be given preference (not in any specific order) include:

• Solutions that are based on, or built upon, open standards
• Solutions free of royalties and licensing fees (other than optional maintenance fees)
• Solutions that are demonstrable (e.g. working demonstrators)
• Solutions that are scalable in functionality
• Solutions that are easily expandable for future IDP/IED functionality
• Solutions exploiting commonalities and similarities among and between the various requirements and showing how they take advantage of such similarities and commonalities
•   Solutions providing a cohesive integrated approach to as many requirements as possible as opposed to individual and non-integrated Solutions to individual requirements.

7          General Terms and Rules

Interoperability: With its PAV Specifications DMP intends to realise the first step to DRM Interoperability defined as the ability DMP Governed Content to be Used by Devices. Note, however, the possible existence of Profiles.

Profiling: This Call for Proposals makes reference to a broad range of technologies. DMP may decide that the PAV Technical Specification will include “Profiles”, i.e. DMP-recognised subsets of PAV technologies that can be implemented in Interoperable PAV Devices.

Choice of technologies: DMP will strive to let the choice of technologies as wide as possible while preserving Interoperability and will resort to specific choices only when so forced by the state of technology.

Integration: DMP’s role is to specify solutions which integrate component technologies. As a rule DMP does not develop and specify component technologies.

Severability: Proponents can respond to one or any number of requirements given in DMP0146. DMP may decide to choose a single Solution from one Proponent or select different technologies from different Proponents and build a single solution therefrom.

Reduction of scope: for the purpose of developing the PAV specification according to the work plan (April 2005) DMP may decide to reduce the scope of functionalities given in DMP0146

Enlargement of scope: DMP may decide to make slight enlargements to the scope of technologies identified in DMP0146. DMP may decide to make only internal Calls for Proposals to acquire the necessary technologies for the enlargements.

Maintenance: Maintenance of the Technical Specification and associated software shall be the responsibility of DMP.

Conformance: The PAV Technical Specification will include the means for determining conformance of Devices, services and applications to the PAV Technical Specification. Proponents are encouraged to provide technical elements to achieve this goal. However, DMP may decide to make a further Call for Proposals specifically for PAV Conformance purposes.

8          Source code and IPR

Proponents are advised that, upon acceptance by DMP for further evaluation, DMP may require that software support for certain parts of any proposed technology be made available in source code. Software relating to standards or publicly available specifications that are referenced in a proposed Solution will not be the subject of such a request. This code will be included in the PAV Technical Specification, in the form of Reference Software and will be an integral part of the PAV Technical Specification. DMP will have the copyright of the reference software and this may be employed by users of the standard to make products. Commitment to provide such software is required by GA04 (October 2004). Actual availability in that case is required by GA05 (January 2005). If Proponents feel that any aspects of their technology should not be made available in source code, then they should clearly state which aspects and why in their submissions.

All Solutions must be licensable on a Fair and Non-Discriminatory basis.

Publication of the PAV Technical Specification resulting from selection of a Solution, parts from different Solutions and their integration shall be the responsibility of DMP. Proponents will provide any license to DMP necessary for publishing the PAV Specification.

If a Trademark will be associated with the PAV Technical Specification, it will be owned and administered by DMP.

9          Timetable and Logistics

10          Annex A: Pre-Registration Form

11     Annex B: Registration form

Name:

Date:

Signature:

12     Annex C: Areas covered by the submission

Legend:            F=fully covered

                        P=partly covered

                        N=not covered