Digital Rights Management (DRM) focuses on methods of protecting
content from theft and unauthorized distribution.
DRM gives digital content publishers the ability to securely distribute
high-value content such as music, books, photos, and
videos in a manner that controls access and distribution. This
control is central to protecting the creator’s and publisher’s
ability to collect payments for their work.
The public has not only become used to the idea that anything
found on the Internet is free but many have also shown
that they will disregard copyright protection if it is convenient
to do so. Software piracy has been an issue since the advent of
the personal computer. Unauthorized music distribution via
Napster and similar programs has been one of the fastest growing
activities on the Web.
DRM is a system that controls and restricts access to the
content. Authorized users may be identified individually, as a
group, or even by the device used for access.
Content must first be encrypted or encoded to block unauthorized
access. When a file is downloaded or accessed, the
DRM software performs an identity check and decides if access
has been paid for and authorized. If the rule for payment has
been satisfied the software then “unlocks” or unencrypts the
file. The file may then be accessed and used within certain
parameters based on the arrangements made at time of payment.
User access rights may vary just as they do in the physical
world—video tapes may be rented and available for limited
time periods or purchased for viewing at will.
Some DRM systems lock content to a particular access
device and prevent the file from being copied or moved without
authorization. Each device must have a unique identity
code or serial number that is unchangeable and stays with the
device for its useful life.
Files can also be watermarked and digitally encoded with
information that identifies the authorized user and a record of
not only when the file was transferred but what rights were
granted to the user. Files that are illegally copied can be traced
back to the source that was given original access.
Some of the challenges that DRM must overcome include:
• Ease of use. DRM will require some type of client software on
the access device, and consumers may not be willing to adopt
any software that limits the use of content too severely.
• Persistent protection. Limitations may be placed on the length
of time or number of times a file is authorized for use. In
other words—the music you purchase digitally today may
have an authorization that expires after several years or a set
number of plays.
• Device and other sharing limitations. Consumers are used to
the right to give away or sell items that they have previously
acquired. DRM makes this difficult. Fair-use laws exist that
allow the purchaser to make copies of music or videos for
personal use (i.e., a consumer can purchase a CD and legally
make a copy to play in a Walkman tape player). DRM could
limit a consumer’s fair use of the content.
Consumers may insist on keeping the right to transfer ownership
to others in much the same way as they would other
licensed content. Books and CDs are examples of licensed
content that an individual can give away or sell after they are
no longer wanted. DRM may impair those ownership rights.
While DRM presents us with certain challenges it will also
create new and useful benefits.
• Sticky availability or hope for the cluttered. We all have those
friends who despite help and many items from the organizer
store have a unique ability to lose or “misplace” almost anything
of value. DRM would allow users to simply provide a
username and password (or perhaps fingerprint for those
with poor memory) and gain access to all the content they
have rights to even if the playback devices are all “hiding”
somewhere in the closet or under the bed. Imagine how
much peace and harmony could exist between teenage siblings
that no longer have to argue that the other borrowed
and lost their favorite CD/MP3/Movie/Game cartridge etc. A
Staggering thought indeed.
• Super distribution. One of the more interesting benefits of
DRM will be the possibility of super distribution. Super distribution
is the ability to transfer content from person to person
in a digital format while accounting for payments back to
the publisher.
An example would be a user who has paid for and downloaded
a music file; another person wanting that file could
transfer payment information and authorization back to the
network DRM system and receive an authorized password
allowing the receipt of the file from the friend’s device. The
person who originally downloaded the file may be given a
small commission or credit in exchange for assisting the
authorized distribution of the file. In this system, it becomes
possible for a service provider to collect payment not for
delivering the content but for simply issuing authorization. 194