Yi-Tan Weekly Tech Call #
16
2005-01-18
(Tuesday
)Our guest this week is Steve Crandall.
For years, many companies have been trying to create the ubiquitous Digital Rights Management system as a way of selling works securely. Those projects have met with mixed success in the market. Worse, they have had strong adverse effects on the public domain and on people's freedom to create and share media. In this Conversation, we will address:
Digital Rights Management is a set of rules embedded in software. Typically, DRM systems regulate the use of works such as music, movies and books in electronic form.
Two significant legal cases affecting DRM:
Takeaways:
DRM systems try to manage the tension between helping companies and individuals make a living by locking up their intellectual property and letting people actually use the works.
Unfortunately, the move from analog security (tapes lose fidelity on each copy) to digital has created a regime that is overzealous and restrictive. In fact, with the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998), programmers can now code their companies local monopolies, like the inkjet cartridge that requires only its makers supplies be used.
In this and other ways, DRM goes beyond copyright law, and looser ways of resolving the tension I described are slow in coming... unless you look into the open commmunity, where the commons is rapidly filling with wonderful unprotected works.
For years, many companies have been trying to create the ubiquitous Digital Rights Management system as a way of selling works securely. Those projects have met with mixed success in the market. Worse, they have had strong adverse effects on the public domain and on people's freedom to create and share media. In this Conversation, we will address:
- What is DRM? How does it work? Who offers it?
- What are its flaws? Its harmful side effects?
- What happens if you skip DRM? How do companies and creators make money?
- InformationWeek: Hackers Use DRM to Plant Massive Amounts of Spyware
Digital Rights Management is a set of rules embedded in software. Typically, DRM systems regulate the use of works such as music, movies and books in electronic form.
Two significant legal cases affecting DRM:
Takeaways:
DRM systems try to manage the tension between helping companies and individuals make a living by locking up their intellectual property and letting people actually use the works.
Unfortunately, the move from analog security (tapes lose fidelity on each copy) to digital has created a regime that is overzealous and restrictive. In fact, with the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998), programmers can now code their companies local monopolies, like the inkjet cartridge that requires only its makers supplies be used.
In this and other ways, DRM goes beyond copyright law, and looser ways of resolving the tension I described are slow in coming... unless you look into the open commmunity, where the commons is rapidly filling with wonderful unprotected works.
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