What is the future for digital rights management?

Umeh: Piracy is unlikely to go away

I am often asked if there is a future for DRM (digital rights management) and my answer is invariably: “Yes, but not in the news headlines”. The reason for this is two-fold.

First, conventional wisdom holds that DRM is too restrictive, too intrusive, non-interoperable and that it may even be fundamentally flawed.

Second, DRM has been used clumsily by several big-name entertainment firms that appear interested only in protecting their investments at the expense of the public.
The resulting outcry and constant bad press has created the sentiment that DRM should just crawl away and die. Hence the feeling that, if DRM continues to generate negative headlines, this could be the outcome.

Even though the above reaction and conclusion is understandable, it is simply not practical, and shows a lack of understanding of the real issues that surround this most controversial of topics.

The problem that DRM attempts to solve has been with us since the advent of mass media and communication technologies. It is rooted in the concept of intellectual property, particularly copyright, which aims to encourage creativity and provide economic benefits to the authors of creative works.

Unfortunately, piracy also developed alongside these innovations and is unlikely to go away. The existing international copyright system has become too antiquated for life in the post-digital world, and despite significant attempts to address this imbalance with new legislation, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or the EU’s Copyright Directive, there remains a need to overhaul the copyright system to move with the times.

The five major stakeholder domains of creative, technology, commercial, governance and consumer interests need to work better together to achieve the co-operation necessary for any real progress.

The music industry has learned this lesson at great cost, and some major labels now offer DRM-free music. The broadcast and film industries are not far behind, although they seem to have taken heed with their online ventures, such as the BBC iPlayer, 4oD, Sky Anytime and Joost.

Digital rights management consists of a suite of technologies that combine to provide capabilities for managing the access and use of digital content. So far, it lacks strong standards and remains mostly non-interoperable. To have a future, it must become interoperable and less intrusive ­ or almost invisible ­ to the consumer, and must capitalise more on its ability to support the content value chain.

It is not surprising to see jostling between various DRM providers, such as Microsoft’s PlayReady technology, which is now also gaining support from the likes of Nokia and Sony, Apple’s Fairplay DRM, which has dominated the music segment thanks to the iTunes/iPod combination, and other contenders such as the Open Mobile Alliance’s OMA DRM 2.0 specification, or the Marlin DRM specification.

Jude Umeh is the author of The World Beyond Digital Rights Management, published by the BCS. He also writes a regular blog on DRM at www.bcs.org/blogs