Heavyweights from several fields, including Intel, mmO2, Nokia, Panasonic, RealNetworks, Samsung and Warner Bros. Studios, have announced their plans for a licensing and compliance framework called Content Management License Administrator (CMLA).

According to the founding companies, the aim of the framework is to address necessary business concerns and enable the rapid delivery of high-quality digital content to mobile handsets and other devices that deploy Open Mobile Alliance's (OMA) Digital Rights Management version 2.0 specification.

The creation of CMLA coincides with the introduction of the OMA's DRM version 2.0 interoperability specification developed and provided through the OMA. The OMA DRM 2.0 specifies an interoperable service enabler for Digital Rights Management (DRM), and is regarded a major enhancement to the OMA DRM 1.0 specification.

The CMLA will address critical digital content delivery concerns by providing a licensing and compliance framework to provide the necessary encryption keys and certificates to licensed device manufacturers and service providers to enable interoperability between new devices and service. The CMLA will also facilitate open participation in the OMA DRM system by defining standard agreements among service and content providers and device makers, according to its founders.

If all goes well, the CMLA expects to have agreements available for device makers, service providers and content participants in the first half of 2004 with a toolkit including encryption "keys" delivered by the end of 2004.