UltraViolet — the next step in DRM, and maybe we’ll finally see legal movie downloads

UltraViolet , with its prehistoric-looking ooh-Web-2.0-reflection!! logo, is about to make a big splash in the world of content distribution. If you thought the days of DRM were behind us, you were wrong. Unless you’re using an Apple device, actually — but more on that in a moment.

Be it music, movies, TV shows or books, UltraViolet has enough clout (some 60 major partners) to significantly alter how digital goods are consumed. Ostensibly, UV is a DRM platform, but because the technology will be ubiquitous and omnipotent, ‘you won’t even know it’s there.’ It’s quite intelligent in its operation too: somewhere, in the cloud, there is a database that stores all of your digital purchases. When you insert a disc (or open a downloaded file), your credentials are checked before the file plays.

Developed by DECE , with partners like Sony, Adobe, Cisco, HP, Microsoft and Intel, this is actually pretty big news. If this means we’ll finally have full access to legally-downloadable movies and TV, UltraViolet is huge news. But most tech blogs only picked this story up for one reason: Apple isn’t one of the partners. You won’t be able to play UV-encoded content on your Mac or iPhone. It’ll be Blu-Ray and HD-DVD all over again!

There doesn’t seem to be any formal road map for adoption, so I have no idea when we will first start to see UltraViolet-enabled devices and media. Presumably an initiative this large will take some time to reach critical mass… but we’ll see!

[On second glance, the UV logo has two mirrored elements -- how overkill is that?!