[jhowell]

From this Sony document:

Sony DADC’s User Rights Management Solution (UMRS) is a new service that offers the best of breed in the two most critical aspects of Digital Rights Management: security and flexibility.

Strength
There are many tools currently available to easily circumvent current DRMs. We call these “one-click” hacks and they contribute to widespread piracy. Sony DADC’s solution keeps easy “one-click” hacks off the market because URMS is “renewable.”

Convenience
It’s a lightweight, API-based solution both for encryption and decryption - you don’t need to license a server. It’s designed to work with the Readium Foundation’s open-source e-reading rendering engine allowing reading app developers to have a seamless experience for their users. Sony DADC and its partners have dedicated resources to help deploy URMS in your distribution or reading environment.

Flexibility
This is perhaps the most important characteristic of URMS. URMS can do everything from ruthlessly lock a file down, to enable a wide ranging of sharing options, whether for paying consumers or for free distribution, for educational, professional, corporate, library and retail use-cases, supporting pay-per-download or subscription. Content owners have an endless array of choices to support current and future business models and marketing and promotional strategies.