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 | | http://www.contentmanager.net/magazine/article_273_digital_rights_management_systems.html |
Generally speaking, digital rights management (in the following abbreviated DRM) systems can also be described as a kind of sales system for digital contents. However, there is a certain scope for interpretation. At the same time the task of such systems is to prevent the use of illegal data, like for example, pirated copies of legally protected music or books. In addition to the copy protection sophisticated DRM-systems also offer the dissemination and calculation of invoices for the used contents. These systems will become increasingly important in the future, because through the utilisation of the internet intellectual contents are digitally retrieved more and more frequently on a long-term basis, for example on the private PC. Currently this is often done illegally, therefore the industry makes every effort to check this through a DRM-system and thus to introduce a system for the calculation of the costs of utilisation for the downloaded file(s). In order to make this worth while, one has to take care that the (potential) customer is not able to procure the wished files in another illegal way. Thus, these files either have to be protected against unauthorised copies or the dissemination of copies has to be stopped. Of course, such a system is not easy to realise, apart from contracts or the financial protection of the artists numerous laws have to be obeyed, keywords in the discussion are here, for example, GEMA, media service inter-state agreement, data protection and other European guidelines. Whereas in the past the industry mostly could offer a continuously higher quality standard than the one of the pirate copiers, the differences nowadays are increasingly reducing, what makes illegal copying so attractive. One of the problems of DRM-systems is the restricted utilisation of the contents, which means, how can be made sure that the user only uses the data he is personally granted.
What exactly is a DRM-system? The basis for such a DRM-system, for example, can be music exchange markets, which in contrast to today's P2P-networks like Kaaza also protect the rights of musicians, authors, etc. Such a system could be connected with a combined software/ hardware copy protection, which would clearly make an abuse more difficult. Apart from Macrovision and Digital World Service, among others Intertrust, Microsoft and IBM are suppliers of DRM-systems.
At IBM the practical implementation of a DRM-system is called EMMS (Electronic Media Management System). The solution is compatible with the common media formats. The system works as follows:
Here the solution is based on encoding algorithms, which are not only to protect the content but also the working environment against manipulation. However, one should not forget that limits are set to the protection of material. These types of projects, to introduce such a system on a large scale, have also failed until now due to the complicated contract provisions of the music industry, which could not agree a common basis. There is a positive sign from the Universal Music Group, which has been offering together with different partners pieces of music for downloading on several internet sites since 20 November. With this strategy the media group wants to take action against exchange markets in the internet, which continue to disseminate illegal copies in the net. It is to be expected that further suppliers will follow this concept. However, the whole thing only makes sense if agreements or standard guidelines are adopted on an international scale, that stipulate in detail which data, for example include illegal contents. This important foundation is currently missing, because as we all know the internet cannot be put in its place by means of national regulations alone. Another aspect is the lack of awareness of wrongdoing of the majority of people. We can only speculate about the reasons. Also here changes have to be made. If not, it has to be assumed that DRM-systems are avoided at an earlier or later stage. The same applies to security systems, which are only based on software, as the past has shown. A lot of internet users are ready and waiting to be able to show their programming technological potential on the basis of developments of the industry.
Published: 03/2004
Author: André Münster
 | | André Münster is author at the PROJECT CONSULT GmbH. Project Consult |
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