DRM is one of the topics we covered in class that really caught my attention. I think it is interesting how some industries, mainly music, have suffered a huge backlash against DRM while others such as the movie industry or software industry do not have the same negative reaction. DRM, at its most basic level is a way for the rights holder to determine what can and can not be done with their digital content. This can range from the ability to share this contented with others on the same account, how many times a year you can print the content, or if the content will be able to be used on more than one device.
How the DRM system is set up is very anti-user. The rights holder sets the boundaries of use and no matter whom the user is, they can either accept the license provided or loose the opportunity to legally use the material. A new model that is gathering support is one that uses a protocol and a language to express communication between consumers and copyright holders, such as Rights Extension Language (REL) extensions. A REL defines a language and vocabulary that enable the specification and interpretation of usage rules in a clear and unambiguous way.
Basically by utilizing REL, there does not have to be a one size fits all approach to DRM. Say, that the rights holder wants to allow students more freedom than non-students, the rights holder can have a set of rights for students, and another set of rights for non-students. It is basically like those pick-your-own adventure stories. I receive a set price for a product dependent of how I want to use the product and how my wants match up with what the rights holder has allowed. It’s not a perfect system, but it seems that if the kinks were worked out it would be a fairer system then the take-it-or-leave-it approach.
The largest controversy’s surrounding DRM involves privacy. Richard Stallman points out that privacy violations are usually hidden from the user unlike other DRM, which the user notices when they are not allowed to use the content how they want. Some examples of Privacy violations in the online music and movie industry’s are, MusicNet, Rhapsody, MovieLink and CinemaNow. All of these programs allowed themselves access to files of the users computers that users could not easily access or change. These files such as index.dat stored not only information about the use of the specific program but all browsing history.
The most infamous of these privacy breeches was Sony XCP, in which US-CERT, a part of Homeland Security, advised, “Do not install software from sources that you do not expect to contain software, such as an audio CD.” Most recently, Spore, a game from EA, shipped with software known as SecuROM, which installs a root kit like Sony XCP. EA requires the player to authenticate the game online upon installation and then every 10 days. The product key of an individual copy of the game would only be authenticated on up to three computers, yet was increased to 5. A class action suit was filed in September 2008. Interestingly, Spore, was also the most bit-torrented game of 2008.
It now seems that the music industry has backed off from DRM. DRM instead of protecting against piracy seems to lead to more piracy just to spite the draconian methods of the rights holder. Like spore in 2008, music, which was most heavily DRMed, was also the most pirated media. Music, however, with the introduction of itunes plus, which uses social rather than traditional DRM has left the music industry practically DRM free.
This short history leads us to e-books. I find that e-books are at an important place because they can go the way of the music industry and DRM everything, which creates a black market for goods, or can adopt less strict DRM practices. The main thing that seems to hurt all DRMed content is that it has interoperability problems. If you spend x amount of dollars at the Amazon store buying .azm file type e-books, and decide that you want to buy the new Nook, you are out x amount of money since your files can not be views on the Nook. However, if all e-books used .azm then there wouldn’t be an interoperability problem. However, Amazon is not about to free up its format or become compatible with the unofficial industry standard ePub.
Amazon’s e-book store reminds me a lot of pre-itunes plus Apples itunes. Amazon like apple benefits from the DMCA, since no one but Apple or Amazon is allowed to make players for iTunes Music songs or .azm e-books, and no one but Apple/Amazon can sell you proprietary file-format music that will play on the iPod/Kindle. Amazon has created an e-Book ecosystem where their customers purchased content solely through Amazon. As Apple had done with digital music, Amazon is now doing with e-Books.
Unlike the Kindle, most e-book readers, such as the Sony reader and the new Nook, support ePub. Epub is the closest thing the industry has to a standard that allows interoperability between devices. ePub (electronic publication) is a common file format for digital books developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). ePub is an xml-based format that is meant to function as a single format that publishers and conversion houses can use in-house, as well as for distribution and sale. Doug Gottlieb, vice president of digital products for Barnes & Noble.com believes, “Standards are good for everyone. They enable more supported eReading devices from which to choose, and these options allow device manufacturers to focus on innovation and differentiation of their products to better serve their customers.” He goes on to say, “the ePub standard allows them to read that same book on their office computer the next day or on a dedicated e-Book reader, which never has a backlight because of e-ink limitations, on their commute.” Epub is now tied to adobe which allows DRM to be added to the open format.
The shift that is occurring based on the almost universal adoption on ePub is a move to social rather then traditional DRM. Social DRM at its core is meant to tie the user’s personal information- be it their name, phone number, or credit card, to their copy of an e-book. The biggest issue right now is to determine, what kind of information should a social DRM system embed. The user would be able to share that e-book but the fact that they would also be sharing their private information with their 1000 closest friends is seen to be a large deterrent. This method is being championed by Adobe’s Bill McCoy. If all else fails, it would be easier for the rights holder to track down pirates if their information was embedded into the media.
This is getting super long, but I think that if ePub becomes the standard, and that there are fairly priced e-books on the market that are protected by social DRM, so that there are no interoperability issues between devices, and the user was allowed to time and space shift, the main reasons for piracy would be gone. Yes, there will always be people who want something for nothing, but if the content industries treat everyone by the lowest common denominator they are creating rather than dissuading pirates.
