Digital Rights Management: Maneuvering Through Digital Locks Introduction
Digital Rights Management: Maneuvering through digital locks
Introduction
In this day and age, it is almost impossible to survive without utilizing some form of technology for the purpose of performing daily tasks more efficiently. My laptop computer enables me with the ability to accomplish a variety of tasks, and downloading music happens to be one of them. For years, I have downloaded and burned music to audio CDs, and since the purchase of an MP3 player I have also been able to sync music to that device. Everything was going great until one day I attempted to make a mix CD of several songs, but when I tried to transfer the music files to an audio CD I noticed a lot of the songs returned an error message stating that I didn’t have the authority to copy or sync the file. This incident introduced me to Digital Rights Management (DRM), a technology used to control the access of digital content. Corporations have argued that DRM is necessary to fight copyright infringement online and keep users safe from computer viruses, and that the main objective of DRM is to help the copyright holder maintain artistic control and ensure that revenue streams remain unaffected. However, there is no evidence that DRM helps prevent copyright infringement or computer viruses. The proponents of DRM argue that digital locks are necessary to prevent property from theft, just as physical locks are needed to prevent virtual personal property from being stolen. I understand this point of view, but I think some of the policies that DRM enforce can inadvertently restrict a user from doing something perfectly legal. This could include: making a back-up copy of a CD or DVD, using copyrighted materials for research and educational use etc. In my opinion, DRM serves as a clever attempt to regulate access and limit reproduction of copyrighted digital media by end users, but as a consequence it can also pose as a barrier toward executing prevalent practices. In this paper I will report on the
Introduction
In this day and age, it is almost impossible to survive without utilizing some form of technology for the purpose of performing daily tasks more efficiently. My laptop computer enables me with the ability to accomplish a variety of tasks, and downloading music happens to be one of them. For years, I have downloaded and burned music to audio CDs, and since the purchase of an MP3 player I have also been able to sync music to that device. Everything was going great until one day I attempted to make a mix CD of several songs, but when I tried to transfer the music files to an audio CD I noticed a lot of the songs returned an error message stating that I didn’t have the authority to copy or sync the file. This incident introduced me to Digital Rights Management (DRM), a technology used to control the access of digital content. Corporations have argued that DRM is necessary to fight copyright infringement online and keep users safe from computer viruses, and that the main objective of DRM is to help the copyright holder maintain artistic control and ensure that revenue streams remain unaffected. However, there is no evidence that DRM helps prevent copyright infringement or computer viruses. The proponents of DRM argue that digital locks are necessary to prevent property from theft, just as physical locks are needed to prevent virtual personal property from being stolen. I understand this point of view, but I think some of the policies that DRM enforce can inadvertently restrict a user from doing something perfectly legal. This could include: making a back-up copy of a CD or DVD, using copyrighted materials for research and educational use etc. In my opinion, DRM serves as a clever attempt to regulate access and limit reproduction of copyrighted digital media by end users, but as a consequence it can also pose as a barrier toward executing prevalent practices. In this paper I will report on the
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