Los Angeles - A consortium of movie studios and Web movie retailers is preparing a new initiative, Open Market, which would create an interoperable digital rights management (DRM) scheme for selling movies online, TechCrunch reported.

Initially proposed last year by Sony Pictures (NYSE: SNE), Open Market will center on a neutral third party, which will manage both registration of various playback devices, and sales and rentals of movies to consumers.

"This 'domain' provider will manage services that let users register devices (PCs, televisions, mobile devices, etc.). Any movie purchased from any service provider can then be watched on a registered device," according to TechCrunch.

Supporters of the initiative purportedly include Sony, Universal, Time Warner, Paramount and Fox -- but not Disney (NYSE: DIS) -- and retailers including Amazon, WalMart and Movielink -- but not Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iTunes Store.

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