Hollywood Studios Team Up Against Apple

Itunes A handful of major entertainment industry players -- including NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures, the RIAA, Sony, Warner Bros., Fox, Dolby and Lionsgate -- teamed up to back an initiative to develop a "buy once, play anywhere" standard for music and video sales.

Conspicuously absent from the group is Disney and Apple -- both of which are married to iTunes and the proprietary format used for music and video sales on iTunes.

The new consortium, called Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, is working toward a uniform standard that can be used across multiple platforms to buy videos and music that can be played on different devices.

"This is great news for consumers hungry for access to a wider array of digital content they can enjoy on any device they own. We formed this consortium to give consumers that kind of power and choice,” said Mitch Singer, president of DECE, in a prepared statement.

The group was rumored to be in the works for awhile -- a little over a year ago Sony was reportedly working on a "challenge" to Apple.

SOURCE

This is good news.

One of the main reasons why I stay away from Apple/iTunes malarkey is this proprietary issue.

Well done Studios, if they want to win back some of the ever increasing P2P community.