Digital rights management is a far-reaching term that refers to any scheme that controls access to copyrighted material using technological means. In essence, DRM removes usage control from the person in possession of digital content and puts it in the hands of a computer program. The applications and methods are endless -- here are just a few examples of digital rights management:
A company sets its servers to block the forwarding of sensitive e-mail.
An e-book server restricts access to, copying of and printing of material based on constraints set by the copyright holder of the content.
A movie studio includes software on its DVDs that limits the number of copies a user can make to two.
A music label releases titles on a type of CD that includes bits of information intended to confuse ripping software.
While many consumers see DRM methods as overly restrictive -- especially those methods employed by the movie and music industries -- digital rights management is nonetheless trying to solve a legitimate problem. The distribution of digital content over the Internet via file-sharing networks has made traditional copyright law obsolete in practice. Every time someone downloads an MP3 file of a copyrighted song from a free file-sharing network instead of buying the CD, the music label that owns the copyright and the artist who created the song lose money. In the case of the movie industry, some estimates place revenue losses from illegal distribution of DVD content at around $5 billion a year. The nature of the Internet makes it impractical to try to sue every person who breaks the law in this way, so companies are trying to regain control of distribution by making it technologically impossible for consumers to make digital copies. Click Here to read more about DRM
Image: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Motherboard-XXIV-317662215
Published on Mar 7, 2014, Adam Ford of The Rational Future interviews Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author, Cory Doctorow, about Digital Rights Management (aka Digital Rights Movement), privacy, the gap between the wealthy and poor, and user's control over their computer technology including robotic limbs.
Digital rights management is a far-reaching term that refers to any scheme that controls access to copyrighted material using technological means. In essence, DRM removes usage control from the person in possession of digital content and puts it in the hands of a computer program. The applications and methods are endless -- here are just a few examples of digital rights management:
A company sets its servers to block the forwarding of sensitive e-mail.
An e-book server restricts access to, copying of and printing of material based on constraints set by the copyright holder of the content.
A movie studio includes software on its DVDs that limits the number of copies a user can make to two.
A music label releases titles on a type of CD that includes bits of information intended to confuse ripping software.
While many consumers see DRM methods as overly restrictive -- especially those methods employed by the movie and music industries -- digital rights management is nonetheless trying to solve a legitimate problem. The distribution of digital content over the Internet via file-sharing networks has made traditional copyright law obsolete in practice. Every time someone downloads an MP3 file of a copyrighted song from a free file-sharing network instead of buying the CD, the music label that owns the copyright and the artist who created the song lose money. In the case of the movie industry, some estimates place revenue losses from illegal distribution of DVD content at around $5 billion a year. The nature of the Internet makes it impractical to try to sue every person who breaks the law in this way, so companies are trying to regain control of distribution by making it technologically impossible for consumers to make digital copies. Click Here to read more about DRM
Image: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Motherboard-XXIV-317662215
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvLbeC3-64M