Microsoft is set to offer for download on Wednesday a "public preview" beta release of its Windows Media Player (WMP) 10 technology. The biggest enhancement will be the new digital-rights-management (DRM) technology, code-named "Janus," that will be embedded inside.

(A Microsoft spokesman noted late Wednesday that while the Janus infrastructure is part of the beta release of WMP 10, the DRM technology won't be usable, or even testable, until the final WMP 10 release in the Fall, when Janus-enabled devices will be available.)

Microsoft announced the Janus code name in early May. At that time, it also pre-announced some of the new partners, including AOL, Disney, Napster and CinemaNow, which committed to adopt the Janus technology. But Microsoft declined to offer any more information at that time.

At its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in May, however, executives with the Redmond software vendor filled in more blanks.

Janus is the successor to the existing Windows Media Digital Rights Management technology. Unlike the current Windows Media DRM, Janus is designed to work across devices — as well as on the next-gen Windows Media Center systems due out later this year — and is custom-designed to support subscription music services (though it also supports other kinds of streaming audio/video content, as well). Janus includes a "secure clock" that is designed to time-out subscription content for which a customer's license has expired.

Product Manager Marcus Matthias called Janus Microsoft's DRM for devices. It is operating-system-independent (it will run inside a Linux set-top box, for example) and is compatible with the current five-year-old Windows Media DRM technology. Microsoft is planning to offer Janus to device makers, chip makers, content providers and other licensees some time later this year, via a porting kit, Matthias said.

Janus encompasses four key components: a version for portable devices (i.e., any device designed to store and play back content, including set top boxes for video-on-demand content); a version for network devices (to extend audio/visual content playback to PCs); a Windows Media Rights manager software development kit; and a Windows Media Format software development kit (for media players that support the current Windows Media Rights management technology).

Matthias told WinHEC attendees to expect to hear more specifics about licensing, pricing and branding "some time this summer."

Microsoft's early music-service and device-maker partners are expected to begin selling their first Janus-enabled products and services in the next month or two, according to Jason Reindorp, group manager for Windows Consumer.

"Right now, there are a few devices that can be 'flashed' with Janus, and it will work automatically," Reindorp explained. "But there's still some development work that needs to happen on the device side."

There is also still work to be done on the DRM server side of Janus, Reindorp acknowledged. "There's work to be done around new business rules" that will be part of the licensing mechanism in Janus, he said. "The content needs to be wrapped around these business rules."

Once Janus ships, it will be one of two Microsoft DRM schemes. The other is Windows Rights Management Services (RMS), the technology designed to secure business information.

"There's been some consolidation in Microsoft's rights management plans," Reindorp said. "There is recognition inside the organization that consolidation (between the Janus and RMS teams) has to happen. But there are still lots of differences (between the two platforms) at the technical level, and the encryption is different."

(This is an edited version of an article which originally appeared in the May 6, 2004, issue of the Microsoft Watch newsletter.)