I used to work for one of these companies in exactly such a role. Initially my mission in standardization bodies was to look after consumer rights, but it chang

I used to work for one of these companies in exactly such a role. Initially my mission in standardization bodies was to look after consumer rights, but it changed to accommodation of IPR patents in the DRM field. There is a group of about 200 professionals in the DRM field, mostly former engineers (that have little grasp outside their expertise) and lawyers that work for companies with significant patent portfolios in the space. They are mostly the same crew, having worked on technologies such as SDMI, OMA-DRM, MPEG-DRM, DVB-CPT frameworks and others - technologies that never saw the light of day over the course of 15 years. I always saw it as a travelling circus - people moving from city to city and continent to continent. They work in a symbiosis with technology people from the entertainment industries, who are also part of the circus. What's important to note is that these people have big named companies on their business cards, but mostly have little involvement into day-to-day business and any products. They frankly just try to keep themselves important and thus employed. Until you give the people in the wandering circus a new assignment, they will always need to find new targets for their technology. I think that is the true reason underneath many of these DRM accomodation efforts into standardization bodies.