Found this post on BoingBoing re DRM (digital rights management), and the movement by this group to pressure libraries to stop using DRM in their collections.
But let’s back up a bit. What is, actually, this digital rights management? This is Wikipedia’s definition:
Digital rights management (DRM) is an umbrella term that refers to access control technologies used by publishers and copyright holders to limit usage of digital media or devices. It may also refer to restrictions associated with specific instances of digital works or devices. DRM overlaps with software copy protection to some extent, however the term “DRM” is usually applied to creative media (music, films, etc.) whereas the term “copy protection” tends to refer to copy protection mechanisms in computer software.
This is from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, “…the leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world.”:
Major entertainment companies are using “digital rights management,” or DRM (aka content or copy protection), to lock up your digital media. These DRM technologies do nothing to stop copyright pirates, but instead end up interfering with fans’ lawful use of music, movies, and other copyrighted works. DRM can prevent you from making back ups of your DVDs and music downloaded from online stores, recording your favorite TV programs, using the portable media player of your choice, remixing clips of movies into your own home movies, and much more.
From the Microsoft Windows Media page:
Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a proven platform to protect and securely deliver content for playback on computers, portable devices, and network devices. The latest version offers increased flexibility to support a wide range of business models that provide consumers even greater access to protected audio and video content.
This article from the BBC online’s Q & A on DRM discusses the very issues on how libraries must, of course, adhere to contractual obligations in providing access to their digital resources:
As custodians of human memory, a number would keep digital works in perpetuity and may need to be able to transfer them to other formats in order to preserve them and make the content fully accessible and usable once out of copyright.
In its written submission to the group, the British Library said DRM must not “exert excessive control on access to information.
This will fundamentally threaten the longstanding and accepted concepts of fair dealing and library privilege and undermine, or even prevent, legitimate public good access.
I don’t know how this might be possible, for libraries to provide the kind of content (highly steeped in DRM)–and here we’re talking everything form music CDs to videos to e-audiobooks–in a way that allows people to store and/or share it with others. Libraries, after all, provide what their communities want, and much, if not all of that content is protected under DRM policies. And what can libraries do, really? Budgets are tightly controlled at various levels of government, there’s always a demand for popular music/videos/e-audiobooks, and more and more content is being made available in digital format.
I don’t know if libraries can do much about it, but the communities they serve can certainly create enough noise that corporations and vendors will notice enough to start making changes. What do you think?
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This is an interesting topic and one that I have been following for a while. How does DRM apply to works that have previously been available in print format? Patrons can make photocopies for personal use from printed material but not with digital? It creates an inequity in the accessibility of material. Of course it is much more difficult to disperse a printed book than an e-book.
And then there is a question of what device to use. Some devices are rumored to have a copyright cop (just google copyright cop and Zune) built into the device. Things will get ugly as publishers continue to lock down their product and the customers no longer can use it. Surely there is a balance somewhere?
That’s the key thing, I think, of finding the balance between sharing, copying, and archiving resources and the access that may be impeded by draconian (albeit necessary from the corporate point of view, I suppose) DRM practices.
Piracy will only get to be a bigger problem…
I think one argument in support of DRM is the fact that digital media “checked out” from libraries – especially e-audiobooks – are just that: checked out. Patrons don’t own these files any more than they own the books or other traditional materials they check out from libraries. The DRM ensures that once the item “expires,” the patron can’t use it any more (unless, of course, they “renew” the item).
Now, if more media players would support DRM, making it easier for patrons to use the files they check out, then the process would be much smoother. In short, I can see the usefulness of DRM, it’s just not quite there yet.