ASPEN, COLORADO - The Progress & Freedom Foundation's 11th Annual Aspen Summit kicked off on Sunday, August 21st, with the announcement of a new digital rights management system from Jonathan Schwartz, President and Chief Operating Officer of Sun Microsystems. Schwartz announced the launch of the Open Media Commons initiative, an "open source community project developing a royalty-free digital rights management standard."

Schwartz announced the Open Media Commons initiative during his keynote speech that marked the opening of PFF's Aspen Summit, the premiere gathering for policymakers, academia and industry leaders in the technology community. Schwartz began his remarks with his observation of the present shift from the information age to a "participation age." This shift to "an age where individuals are creating and supplying the news as much as they are consuming it," he explained, has been brought about by the multitude of devices available that are used to share and gather information. Schwartz explained that digital rights management must adapt to "participation age" by being independent from device, media and business models. To address the need for an alternative digital rights management system, Sun Labs has been looking at alternative ways to address the issues of interoperability and digital rights management through its Project DReaM (DRM/ everywhere available). The project will share current and future technologies created through Project DreaM under commons licensing.

Schwartz's announcement highlighted the theme of this year's Aspen Summit, "Building a Digital Ownership Society: The Place for Property and Commons." Keynote addresses, panel discussions and informal working dinners will explore digital ownership and its relation to all aspects of the technology and communications industry.

The Progress & Freedom Foundation is a market-oriented think tank that studies the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. It is a 501(c)(3) research & educational organization.