(Continued — 2)

Containing Content

In most cases, existing methods of protecting digital assets delivered to the consumer are able to be circumvented. It does not take long to find DVD players that get around the Macrovision encryption, to find software which decrypts PDF security passwords, or to find CD-ROM imaging tools which copy "protected" CDs that include bad sectors (such as Sony's Playstation discs). Even sound and video "hacks" are available for free that allow recording of so-called secure music formats to audio files by simply hijacking the audio being sent from the secure file server to the PC's sound card.

Trial download software with time-limits are easily "kraked" to allow unlimited use, and even the online image protection software solutions that disallow screen capture do nothing to protect from the video-out jacks of many modern multimedia PCs. Further, e-book traders have completely bypassed buying licensed e-books to trade, and simply use document scans of printed books converted to PDF (a built-in feature of Adobe Acrobat).

All of the yammering and posturing of content companies selling commercial product, and worrying about theft and loss of revenue, are entirely justified. But many of those conglomerates have contributed to the consumer expectation of the right to copy. Consider the photo-copier, the cassette recorder, the VCR, and the CD-R drive. All of these devices encouraged the average person to copy things without paying for them, be it books at the library, music off of LPs for your car stereo, or movies off of cable to watch when time permits.

"For online content delivery, if you want protect MPEGs, Microsoft has a very cheap solution that offers time limitations. If you want to protect PDFs, you will find that functionality already built into the Adobe program. If you want to protect music soundclips, you are wasting your time," says Artistscope's Kent. "Each company's requirements and delivery methods are different. You may want shopping cart features, immediate online delivery after a successful transaction, or time-limited access by number of visits or one-visit-only (popular with adult sites). The fact that piracy of media costs its creators too much in lost revenue is here to stay, and on the Internet there is little we can do except to slow it down. There is no 'out of the box' solution that will suit all circumstances and requirements because the needs of each client and the product deliveries can be too different."

Christopher Simmons of Neotrope adds the following thought, "I believe true DRM over the Internet may require a specialized content browser, separate from the Mozillas, Opera, and Internet Explorer applications. We used to offer a product called Mprotect, which was the result of working to protect our visual content for a stock photo site called Mindstock.com. This past spring (2001) we completely abandoned it because of problems with Web browser compatibilty, Java inconsistencies, and the fact hardly anybody who it was targeted to understood what it was good for." (Editor's note: Neotrope is the publisher of Digital Author.)

So, what's the answer? Simply that we have a long way to go in developing both business models that suit consumer expectation, and what is achievable in encryption of content without severely damaging the content to the point it changes markedly from what the creator of said content intended.

DRM and You

If you've gotten this far you might be either more confused, or slightly more enlightened as to what DRM is or will become. What DRM means to any one company specifically will vary depending on industry segment and whether the content being managed is intended for business use or consumer use, as entirely different rules and solutions might apply.

While you or your business might not have a use for DRM right now, it is likely that if you use and manage digital content and intend to share that with any other organization or customer in a secured manner, it will soon become a familar part of your vocabulary.

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