MPEG-21: Bringing Transparency to Multimedia

In a society of information overload, in which use of digital multimedia is rapidly expanding, the Moving Picture Experts Group, MPEG, plans to solidify and redefine the use of digital items with the new MPEG-21 format. 

The goal of MPEG-21 is to create a single framework that will synthesize the delivery and consumption of multimedia under one roof, ensuring clear and efficient use of different forms of digital media among users through the wide array of devices available today.

For example, through the implementation MPEG-21, the use of distinct terms to describe media such as video, image, audio content, etc., will become irrelevant. Instead, all media assets will be referred to as "resources," and all those who distribute and consume these resources are "users."

MPEG-21 will also drastically change the world of P2P media sharing by creating a code that will detect which users have the right to access and or alter the resource or digital item. For more detailed information on this new format that is changing digital technology as we know it, visit http://mpeg.chiariglione.org/standards/mpeg-21/mpeg-21.htm

Sources: http://mpeg-21.itec.uni-klu.ac.at/cocoon/mpeg21/, http://mpeg.chiariglione.org/standards/mpeg-21/mpeg-21.htm, http://mpeg.chiariglione.org/technologies/mpeg-21/mp21-ff/index.htm, http://www.sersc.org/journals/IJHIT/vol1_no4_2008/5.pdf