DRM. Digital Rights Management. You might not know what it is but chances are you’ve used it. It’s found in practically every media we consume. On the television, in your iPod, your Xbox and your computer. DRM is all around us, yet for the most part we’re unaware of it. So what is it, and why is it something you should start caring about?
Digital Rights Management is a term used to describe any technology designed to prevent the unauthorized copying, performance, or distribution of a piece of media. For example, it is designed to prevent songs you buy from showing up on the Internet where other people can download them for free. That’s it DRM isn’t complicated at all. So what’s all the fuss about?
It comes down to balancing consumer "fair dealing" rights with corporate profits. On one side, consumers want to be able to purchase the music, television, movies and games the way they always have and to enjoy them without having to endure unneccesary cost or hastle. As well consumers like reporters, artists, critics, and academics expect to able to quote and construct new content from existing media without needing to seek the consent of the media producers. These consumer expectations are called "fair dealing" or "fair use" rights and have been well established in legal tradition.
On the flip side, the media producers are now learning to live in the age of digital distribution and the Internet. They’ve seen programs like Napster dramatically increase the amount of piracy in the market, and are scared that consumers will no longer pay them for the content they produce. Whether this has happened or not, is an issue of debate however it’s clearly their concern.
This is where DRM fits in. DRM is technology added by content producers to take back control of their media. By preventing illegal copying, playback, and distribution of their content they can force consumers to pay to use their media on every device they own. No more copies showing up on the Internet, and no more concerns about piracy.
In principle things would be fine if DRM stopped there, however in practice it doesn’t. Since it’s technically unfeasible to distinguish every legal use from an illegal one, few if any of the legal uses of media are allowed by the DRM protecting it. For example, quoting or using components of a work is prevented by DRM since it makes it too easy to stich together a new copy of the entire work. Or playing back a song purchased off of iTunes on a device not made by Apple. Since Apple isn’t 100% confident you’re not stealing it doesn’t allow it. Too bad for Apple’s competitors. Who needs an open marketplace anyway?
Too get around these restrictions DRM has placed on "fair dealing" uses, consumers have been forced to use applications which remove the DRM and allow them access to the content without restrictions. In the United States the government has responded by outlawing any product or service which can be used (with or without the intent of the provider) to remove or disable DRM. This legislation is know as the Digital Millenium Copyright Act or DMCA for short. So far Canada, has taken a more restrained wait and see approach, however that is now starting to change.
This week Jim Prentice, Canada’s current Industry Minister, was prepared to introduce a bill that would "harmonize" Canada’s copyright protection laws with those of our trading partners. Though it hasn’t been made public yet the ministry has refused to comment on it’s contents and many fear that it will be the equivalent of the Canadian DMCA. This would make any Canadian using technology to circumvent DRM and enforce their "fair dealing" rights a criminal under the law. This could potentially criminalize thousands of reporters, artists, and academics and at the very list handicap them in the practice of their profession.
The government has now responded by tabling the bill until later in the holidays, but has still refused to publicly consult or comment on it’s contents. If you’d like to let them know what you think please read this excellent blog post by Michael Geist, a law professor at Carleton University in Ottawa.
For more information consider reading any of the excellent articles.
globeandmail.com: How did copyright become cool?
Michel Geist’s blog
Mark Uncategorized Politics, Soapbox, Technology
A few days ago I made a post about modifying phpunit_setup.inc to enable test driven development on Drupal 5. Since then a few things have happened.
)Â It’s still in the testing phase so it’s not included on all coaches, but that also means it’s free to use as much as you want.
