High Level Group on Digital Rights Management

Overview
In March 2004, the European Commission established the High Level Group (HLG) on Digital Rights Management to address and discuss the obstacles to the implementation of DRM. The HLG comprises mainly ICT companies and industry associations. The Group agreed to focus on five issues:


 * Interoperability requirements
 * Acceptance and trust by users
 * Migration to legitimate services
 * Impact of DRM on existing rights management approaches, in particular levies, and
 * Assessment of some DRM applications.

On July 9, 2004 the European Commission released the HLG's Final Report, titled Report by the High Level Group on DRM at the European Commission, which summarized the work of the Group from March to July 2004. The Group agreed on the need for interoperability and open standards for the benefit of both consumers and companies. The remaining parts two and three of the report titled "private copying levies and DRM" and "migration towards legitimate services," were not supported by the consumer organization involved.