DRM: Becoming quite a drama07 June 2006
Sponsored by Bannerman Technology
If you've reached the conclusion that the world is ready for your latest Karaoke smash hit or 3-hour movie epic, or you simply want to know how your downloads are protected, it may be time to get more information on DRM.
DRM or Digital Rights Management is a term that refers to ways that copyright owners use technology to protect their property.
This seems like a simple, straight forward and sensible thing to do, illegal duplication of music, films, games etc have been going on for ages, and as these are now all available in digital format they are becoming easy, faster and cheaper to duplicate.
So surely everyone would agree that allowing the creators of these products to protect their content would be a good thing. Most people would, but perhaps the way that Digital Rights Management solutions are being implemented are causing difficulties for consumers. Some of the problems with DRM centre around the control that the producer of the content has over the consumer. DRM can control how many hardware devices the media can be used on.
Vinyl freedom....
If you're old enough to remember when Vinyl was the first choice for music, you could (and incidentally still can) play your LP on as many record players as you liked. You owned the LP and how you played it was up to you. Now, one music download shop for example, will only allow you to download content to play on your PC or just one other device.
The 'root' cause?
One well-known record company went a bit further when their audio CDs automatically installed software onto the consumers' PC hard disk drive. This 'rootkit' allegedly caused security vulnerabilities in the PC and the patch that was issued to address these, in some reported cases, caused data loss on the users computer.
Even with the bad press, protecting your content by implementing a DRM policy is a prudent plan. There are a range of companies that can help and advise you on DRM and supply you with the tools to carry it out. Just remember to strike a balance between protecting yourself and your customers freedom to choose.
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