While proprietary DRM in the music biz has been sorta’ crumbling lately, it seems companies just aren’t getting the message when it comes to digital video. And when thinking of the proprietary, one can hardly be surprised that Sony are at the forefront of insisting upon closed systems of distribution such as their recent demo of new BD-Live features that let you copy a portable version of a Blu-Ray film from a Playstation 3 to a Playstation portable.

On the surface, this is innovative and promising. But while the reaction to the news has been surprisingly good, I can’t help but feel this a step in the wrong direction. For someone like me who owns both a PS3 and a PSP, this’ll be great – a true example of synergy done right and actually giving (specific) consumers what they want: a simple, efficient way to have portable versions of what one has at home. But for anyone who does not have the same dubious pleasure of living in a Sony universe… not so much. Naturally, this not only ties you to Blu-Ray (rather than DVD) but to a specific Blu-Ray player and portable device. After all, does anyone really expect Sony to open this up to the Zune, Sansa View or, heaven forbid, the ubiquitous iPod? As Apple before them, Sony are coaxing you into their hardware universe by making sure their content plays on their stuff (though, before you write an angry comment, I am not saying the success of the iPod is solely due to the iTunes music store at all).

But something similar can also be said of recent news that Apple plans to include a copy-protected portable movie on select DVDs (the first one seems to be a Family Guy disc). Again, the smaller version of the film will only play on iPods as it uses Apple’s proprietary DRM scheme. And in much the same manner that the Sony move can be seen as an innovative but ultimately flawed idea, this newest move by Apple and Fox highlights the problem. Buy one DVD and get a copy for your iPod but not your PSP; buy, one Blu-Ray and get a copy for your PSP but not your iPod – and never the twain shall meet. While I can see how this may form the basis for a more open, universal system in the future – in the same way that iTunes kickstarted the digital music biz and led it to where it is today – to my mind, the music industry shows a pretty clear example of why this proprietary approach just doesn’t work.