Marlin (DRM)

Marlin is a DRM platform created by an open-standards community initiative called the Marlin Developer Community (MDC). The Marlin initiative is based on the fundamental notion that interoperability and openness are essential to sustainable commercial success.

The MDC’s mission is to combine the technology, partners, and services to enable the creation of interoperable digital content distribution services. Marlin’s dynamic ecosystem approach to content distribution services stands in contrast to proprietary technology approaches or those controlled by single-entities.

Marlin technology provides a unique set of capabilities for managing relationships among devices, network services, and digital content, from the perspective of the consumer. This consumer domain approach results in competitive business models that emphasize accessing, using, and sharing content intuitively. With Marlin, service providers and device markers can create and support innovative content services over open networks.

History

The MDC was formed in 2005 by five companies — Intertrust, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung and Sony. The MDC released the first set of specification in 2006. The Marlin Founders also identified the need for a neutral trust management and licensing organization, forming the Marlin Trust Management Organization (MTMO).

Technology

Marlin was created with specific design goals. First, Marlin simplifies the user experience of consumer devices by allowing import from multiple independent services; enabling flexible content distribution models; and accommodating P2P interactions that expand beyond PC-centric models. Second, Marlin is based on a general-purpose rights management architecture that allows for substantial flexibility and control in implementation. Marlin specifications define the capabilities and architecture so that devices and services can interoperate to provide consumers with valuable content options.

Most Marlin implementations include the core system specification which defines the basic components, protocols, and consumer domain model that enable the interoperability between Marlin-enabled devices and services. This specification is based on the Octopus and NEMO reference technologies (described below), which have been adapted for peer-to-peer device interactions.

The rights management within Marlin is based on a general-purpose DRM architecture (Octopus) that is extremely expressive and allows for flexible business rules. At the center of an Octopus system is a graph-based relationship engine. In Marlin, Octopus node objects are used to represent system entities (such as users and devices), and links between nodes represent relationships. The system of nodes and links is integral to managing where, how, and when content can be used in a Marlin system. Octopus is designed to run on various platforms, from smartcards to servers, being media format and cryptographically agnostic. It is extensible for future-proofing systems, easily configurable, optimized for small systems, and semantics-free.

NEMO is an acronym for Networked Environment for Media Orchestration. It provides a services-based framework for trusted connections between various components of a Marlin DRM system. Based on secure Web Services standards, NEMO defines service interfaces, service access policies, and support for trust relationships among distributed entities that play well-defined and certified roles. Through the use of the NEMO framework, Marlin components can leverage a consistent mechanism to ensure that messages are delivered with appropriate protection and are exchanged between entities that are properly authenticated and authorized. The services supported by NEMO may be operated together with other, application-specific media services that are not required to be NEMO-compliant.

Products

Marlin products are available to participants in the MDC and partners. The primary products include:

The Sushi Marlin Client SDK is used to create client-side DRM functionality. This SDK provides the primary Marlin components necessary for determining license conditions and controlling access to protected content. It is easily adapted to hardware devices and media playback and service access applications can also utilize it to provide DRM functionality.

The Bluewhale Marlin Broadband Server is a configurable implementation of a Marlin server providing the support necessary to secure the delivery of digital content to Marlin clients. In order to prepare appropriate information requested by clients, a Bluewhale server integrates with a service provider’s back-end business logic, using a simple XML-based interface. It translates the business logic into Marlin rights objects, creating and managing licenses and user registrations, for example.

The Bento4 Packager is a convenient tool for content packaging and parsing that works with Marlin clients. This tool packages, encrypts and protects content files at the server side. On the client side, the tool provides content decryption and parsing.

Partners

In October 2008, the MDC announced the formation of the Marlin Partner Program (MPP) with an initial launch including over 25 leading Technology Solutions Providers, System Integrators and Content Management companies.

Since the launch, membership has continued to grow, reaching over 30 companies. The MPP is proving to be a successful development model. Member partners identify, develop and provide a variety of technical components and integration services creating a marketplace of Marlin solutions. Network operators, service providers, device manufacturers, and other companies deploying Marlin-based products and services find working with the MPP speeds their time to market and enhances flexibility.

Trust Services

The technology is based upon open standards, but the security of the system is managed by an independent entity, the MTMO. The MTMO maintains the integrity and security of the system through its key management services.

Deployment

Marlin is commercially deployed worldwide on a variety of devices and services.

Marlin is the basis of the national IPTV standard in Japan and has been deployed by Actvila, a web-based TV portal, launched in 2007. The Actvila service portal, created by partners Hitachi, Panasonic, Sharp, Sony, and Toshiba, included a roll-out of Internet-enabled TVs.

Sony uses Marlin in the PlayStation Network, allowing users of the video download service to share purchased or rented content on PS3 and PSP systems. The connectivity between PS3 and PSP platforms provides a seamless solution and is part of Sony’s broader strategy to network its CE products and content libraries.

Televisions and Blu-ray players, which support the Phillips Net TV service.

The following standard bodies have specified use of Marlin in their specifications:
1. UltraViolet the digital rights authentication and cloud-based distribution system standard from the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem
2. The Open IPTV Forum

The following national initiatives have selected Marlin:
1. The Italian Internet TV services platform developed by the Tivu consortium
2. YouView the open Internet connected platform for the United Kingdom.
3. The TNT 2.0 specifications from the HD-Forum France.

Other consumer media services, including mobile and online video, are currently testing their Marlin-enabled products.

References

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1. ^ http://www.marlin-community.com/
2. ^ http://www.intertrust.com
3. ^ http://www.panasonic.net
4. ^ http://www.philips.com
5. ^ http://www.samsung.com
6. ^ http://www.sony.net
7. ^ http://www.marlinusers-japan.org/HTML/Eng/about/member-list.html
8. ^ http://www.drmwatch.com/standards/article.php/3605611
9. ^ http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/147583/sony_puts_network_at_center_of_midterm_strategy.html
10. ^ http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/technology/technology/theme/marlin_01.html
11. ^ http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/technology/technology/theme/marlin_02.html#page02
12. ^ http://www.ericsson.com/ericsson/corpinfo/publications/review/technology_update/archive/2009/issue_1/articles/oipf.shtml