Info, Law, IP & Ethics

Digital Rights Management is “a systematic approach to copyright protection for digital media. The purpose of employing DRM is to prevent unauthorized redistribution of digital media and to restrict consumers from copying content they’ve purchased (SearchCIO).”

DRM is used to stop the exchange of digital media content illegally. The exchange of digital media files via the internet or other sources without paying for it has obstructed all copyright laws and even though many users see Digital Rights Management as overly restrictive, it is solving a legitimate problem.

The copyright law states that people can make copies of content they’ve purchased for their own use. However a computer program cannot think subjectively and does not allow any copying at all be it for personal use or not.

DRM and the Music Industry

Piracy wasn’t an issue for a long time until copying material that was released was a big hassle. With the advent of easily copy able material that started with magnetic tapes and has carried on now to CD’s, peer to peer sites and the internet piracy has become a major issue. This led to companies producing media content employ the tactics of DRM to stop piracy.

The top four music groups operating in the US are Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, EMI, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group. Out of these four, three of them had already started selling their music without DRM requirements. Sony BMG is the last to follow the trend to drop DRM.  This action is being taken to increase exposure of their artists and to end Apple’s monopoly over the song downloading market. (source)

Consumers boycotted Sony when they came up with a DRM software that embedded itself in users PCs when the CD was played. This action enraged consumers who were paying for their music and thus led to a boycott. This created the people who were paying for the music to pay for those who were pirating it and the people who were pirating it were still free and unharmed.

Another implication of applying this DRM technology was that people started switching to the mode of download that was most compatible with their music players. This led to give Apple an increased monopoly over the other music retailers.

Now the basic question that arises is if DRM is the right way to go or not? And this step taken by the music companies to exclude DRM from their music was a good step or not. In my opinion this is a good step because firstly it did not achieve its objective that is curb piracy. It just created a barrage of problems for the consumers who were actually paying for the music. Also a lot of music loving consumers were deprived of the music. The music companies also faced a lot of heat because of this policy and faced boycott from a lot of consumers. This not only led to increased anger by the consumers but also led to decreased sales of the music companies. According to an article the sales of Apple increased considerably and it got an 80% share of the market for legally downloadable music .  Another reason why taking back this DRM is that Sony and other music companies had started misusing this technology and had started crossing the line to obstruct consumer privacy. The DRM software created problems with Windows Operating System and made it more vulnerable . What the DRM software of Sony did was it installed with itself Rootkits on the users system. Rootkits are technologies that can’t be seen on the surface. They hide files, registry keys and other objects from security software and so are usually used by malware and such objects that don’t want to be seen on the surface. This helps a hacker or intruder to acquire access to a system. This was most prominently seen in Microsoft Windows Operating System. Mark Russinovich  was the first person to find this and reveal it to the world which led the consumers to get into an outrage and boycott Sony. Also Sony found itself the subject of many lawsuits.

This was not the first time that invasive DRM was used by record companies however this came to broader public attention. Therefore in my opinion its better that DRM technology has been removed. DRM technology like this one mentioned above that is the root-kit is very harmful to computer systems as it directly affects not only a computers’ operating system but also directly manipulates the kernel, which is the core of the operating system so the user is exposed to multiple security threats. Intrusive DRM software was available even before this but the new thing was that the files were now being installed on the operating system level. They are supposedly trying to scan the system to detect attempts of piracy and in this way the systems resources and power are used up. Therefore this is highly intrusive to the consumers and was severely warned.

  References

• SearchCIO, http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid182_gci493373,00.html
• Bohn, p. (2005) Intrusive DRM: The cases of Sony BMG, StarForce and Microsoft http://www.indicare.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=155
• Holahan, C. (2008). Sony BMG Plans to Drop DRM. Business Week. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2008/tc2008013_398775.htm
• Layton, J. How Digital Rights Management Works. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/drm.htm
• Russinovich, Mark (2005). Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2005/10/31/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights-management-gone-too-far.aspx
• Sony Corp. http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/technology/technology/theme/marlin_01.html
• Mark’s Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/