SDMI Director Chiariglione to Step Down

Leonardo Chiariglione, executive director of the Secure Digital Music Initiative, announced he was stepping down Wednesday as the organization opened its first meeting of the year.

The move comes as SDMI--a group formed by entertainment, software and consumer electronics companies to battle digital piracy--is faltering. Its mission was to design technologies to prevent songs from being copied once they are released online, but it is stumbling amid infighting, missed deadlines and recent tests showing two of the five technologies under review were defeated by hackers in a public contest.

Chiariglione said he would relinquish his duties over the next few months to concentrate on his job at Telecom Italia Group’s corporate research center. SDMI hasn’t named a successor.