Something like this is no real surprise - ContentGuard had been under pressure from regulators for being too concentrated in the hands of Microsoft and Time Warner. I'm not sure the addition of the publishing giant Thomson will change anything, but the partners no doubt hope it will. Here is the ContentGuard press release on the acquisition and a wholly frivolous press release on Thomson's licensing of ContentGuard patents (If I buy the rights to print this article from myself, can I write a press release too? Sheesh...). Meanwhile, readers may want to look at ContentGuard's Rights Express service, which demonstrates not only how their rights management language works, but also their attitude toward open markets: "For the best user experience, please access RightsExpress with Microsoft Internet Explorer. Other browsers may not render the content properly." (In fact, it renders just fine in Firefox.)
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