Navio to Offer Web Licensing System
Navio Systems Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., will launch an online commerce system today that could expand consumer options for obtaining and using digital downloads, from games to songs to videos.
The start-up company’s software and services platform is sold to content providers such as music and movie companies, allowing them to sell consumers the rights to a piece of content rather than the individual downloads, or digital files, themselves.
It also allows content providers to use a variety of online distribution points from blogs to fan websites and gives consumers access to the downloads from all kinds of Web-connected devices, from PCs and mobile phones to media players.
For instance, if you lose copies of games or music you’ve downloaded, chances are you’d have to buy them again to replace them.
With Navio’s system, a consumer could technically download it again free of charge because the consumer purchased the license for it.
Yet that would only be possible if the content provider allowed it. The terms of usage and prices for downloads would still be left to the content providers.
Navio’s challenge would be to sign up many content owners to use its platform, said Gartner Inc. analyst Mike McGuire. So far, Navio’s customers include Walt Disney Co.’s Internet group, Atom Entertainment Corp. and Fox Sports Mobile.
Still, the increased flexibility for content providers and consumers under Navio’s comprehensive platform, which also includes the heavy lifting for unifying different payment systems, is a unique, albeit ambitious, offering, analysts say.
“One of the frustrations that consumers have today is that they have limited options and a lot of restrictions,” said Melissa Webster, an analyst at IDC, a market research firm.
“But this lets the content owner install flexible bundles of rights to let consumers use the media the way they want,” Webster added.
Navio said that it is expanding its technology to allow any Navio-powered online music purchases to be played on Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod, , if content providers would want to include the device in their download offerings.
Currently, only downloads purchased from Apple’s iTunes music store are playable on the iPod.
