Music and Movie Protection: DRM and The Digital Content Industry

DRM, or digital rights management is a software technology designed to limit piracy. Currently it works in a rather rudimentary way, mostly by limiting the amount of devices a file can be played on. Generally a device must be authorized by the company selling the media. This is done by placing a special, encrypted file on the users computer or portable media player that shows it's allowed to play the file.

In the future DRM will become more advanced using finger print, and other bio-verification means to make sure a music, video, or game is only being consumed by the purchaser. Advantages of verifying this on a per-person basis is that if something happens to erase the authorization file, such as a computer crash, it doesn't prevent the person from being able to watch or listen to the media in the future.

There are two main brands of DRM. Apple's proprietary FairPlay system, and Microsoft's DRM system. Apple FairPlay only works on iPods and iTunes and allows for music to be authorized for a maximum of five PCs and an unlimited amount of iPods. Microsoft's DRM works on many portable devices but not iPods. It can be used to play back both videos and music, and it's content licensing terms vary by music seller. The DRM on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD could be considered of a second generation type.

They are more easily updated, then say Apple's FairPlay, and are harder to remove. But the encryption has been broken on HD-DVDs using PC software that reads ALL data coming off the DVD. Due to this "hacking" the DVD companies are considering selling DVDs that only play on set top players. This particular DRM is also awkward for consumers, because they must regularly update their DVD player firmware or software to play the latest HD/Blu Ray DVDs. DRM has absolutely no benefits for consumers.