The Centre for Content Protection (CCP), which was launched during the Asia Television Forum yesterday, is a response to the region's now vastly more complicated media landscape.

The centre was set up by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) with backing from the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA), the Republic's industry regulator.

The CCP will allow regional technology and content companies, governments and consumer advocacy groups to find common ground, said MPAA executive vice-president Fritz Attaway.

He said content protection is a particularly pressing issue in Asia because of the varied media formats, technological standards and laws governing media across the different countries. There is also the perennial problem of piracy.

The tangled landscape raises a range of problems - for media companies trying to reach paying audiences, for hardware makers who want to know what formats will be popular and for consumers who suffer from a lack of good content.

The centre, which is now just a website, is on the hunt for a suitably user-friendly yet secure content protection technology that can be adopted by companies region-wide.

It is also working on formalising an organisational structure and appointing advisers, which will happen by next year, said Mr Attaway.

Those who join - membership costs $2,500 - can expect white papers and other resource material on digital media standards, content protection technology, legal matters and digital media business models. There are also plans for network events and training seminars.

The vice-president for new media technology at MediaCorp, Mr Kenneth Lee, backed the centre.

Mr Lee said MediaCorp has long had a problem with users taping its content and then uploading this material onto video-sharing sites. It usually contacts the sites to get the videos taken down, but the process is time-consuming and unwieldy.

MediaCorp has a subscription-based website, MobTV, that allows users to watch its shows legally, so having content pirated on the same medium undermines its ability to 'monetise' MobTV, he said.

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