Movie studios are preparing to form a grand alliance with retailers in a bid to stave off the threat to their industry from piracy. The premise is simple.  At the moment pirated products which can be played on any machine are more attractive than the real thing and punters want to stick content on loads of devices.

The alliance includes the movie studios, Sony and Philips, Intel, Microsoft, and a few retailers like Best Buy. Dubbed the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, the alliance wants to have a  "buy once, play anywhere" future. So far, it has not revealed much about itself other than the name.  But Mitch Singer, who has been CTO at Sony Pictures since 2006, will head up the effort.

It will allow purchased video content to play seamlessly on any device or screen that the buyer owns and to allow access to a "virtual library" of purchased content accessible from anywhere on the 'Net. All good stuff, in the future there will be DECE-ready devices on all machines and your dad's brother's name is Robert.

However, the glorious alliance is lacking one player. The fruit themed outfit Apple has decided that since it cannot control all these people it has chucked its toys out of the pram. The question is whether Apple actually needs DECE.  It has its iTunes set up and its legions of fan boys who think the clunky hunk of junk is software Nirvana. 

DECE might be able to create something good, but without the main player in the music and film distribution field on board there would seem to be little point. However, it would be nice if for once Apple got a bloody nose over this.  Working with the industry for once would help to kill off piracy and make sure that there was a digital future for entertainment content.