Five Giants in Technology Unite to Deter File Sharing

Five Giants in Technology Unite to Deter File Sharing: "The consortium - known as Project Hudson and made up of Intel, Nokia, Samsung, Toshiba and Matshushita - plans to announce its new approach in early February to precede the Grammy music awards and the movie industry's Academy Awards ceremony.

Project Hudson pits the new group against other copy protection systems being advanced by Sony and Royal Philips Electronics, Apple Computer, RealNetworks and others.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., is promoting its own plan, known as the Windows Media Rights Manager. But it has been held back, in part, by a legal challenge over infringing on software patents belonging to a smaller American company, Intertrust, which was acquired in late 2002 by Sony and Philips.

Fears in Hollywood and the recording industry over Microsoft's potential control had also stalled the software maker's thrust into the world of digital media. But those fears have lessened lately, in part because of the emergence of competing technologies from Apple, RealNetworks, Roxio and others. Digital content providers are increasingly finding ways to use some of Microsoft's technology without giving up control of their content."