Who's afraid of digital rights management?
Wed Jul 10, 3:26 PM ET
John Carroll
COMMENTARY--Microsoft's announcement of its "Palladium" projecthas generated a lot of negative comments in thetechnology community. As an implementation ofspecifications put together by the "Trusted ComputingPlatform Alliance" (TCPA) lead by Intel, it usespublic key cryptography to identify the originator ofcode or data located on a system (among other things).
On the one hand, this could potentially make itharder for viruses to get a toehold on your system. On the other hand, it also makes it possible fororiginators to control how their code or media isused. Such bulletproof Digital Rights Management(DRM) capability is highly controversial. RossAnderson of Cambridge describesTCPA systems' effect on users as follows:
TCPA and Palladium do not so much provide securityfor the user, but for the PC vendor, the softwaresupplier, and the content industry. They do not addvalue for the user. Rather, they destroy it, byconstraining what you can do with your PC - in orderto enable application and service vendors to extractmore money from you.
Such claims are overly simplistic. Digital RightsManagement will certainly give media companies theability to control the manner in which consumers uselicensed media, which could be considered a"limitation." Looked at from a different angle,however, the protection of license rights couldattract companies, both large and small, to thedigital space, leading to more choices for consumers.
There are three primary advantages to strong DRM:
1. More investment in digital content. Majormedia companies invest billions every year into theirbusinesses, yet spend little on digital content. Why?
Digital copies are perfect whether it's the first orthe 100th copy. With Napster ( news - web sites) and its clones showinghow popular such copying can be, media companies favorold fashioned distribution technology which hasdemonstrated its ability to generate revenue over anenvironment where the returns are questionable. Should DRM become widespread, however, media companiescan be expected to shift their resources to digitalcontent, resulting in an explosion of services limitedonly by the capabilities of the computing environment.
2. DRM as the great leveler. Largecorporations are not the only creators of content. Irecently purchased a digital video camera, and havebeen amazed by the broadcast quality of the image itproduces, not to mention the ease with which I canedit that media on a desktop computer. Similarly, Ihave friends who have an entire sound studio in aspare room of their house. Media production is nolonger the exclusive domain of big companies. Technological advances and mass production has broughtmedia production capability within the purchasingrange of the average consumer.
A mechanism by which small-scale producers cangenerate revenue will help to boost the market forsuch media. The Internet has always been promoted asthe great equalizer, giving the little guy a voice ina world formerly dominated by those with the money todistribute through traditional channels. The Internetas a global medium already serves as a low-costdistribution network from which thousands ofsmall-scale software producers benefit. Strong DRM isthe final piece in the puzzle, making it possible forthem to ensure a revenue stream at lower cost. Thiscan only serve to boost the prospects of small contentand software producers, growing their businesses andmaking them better competitors to large corporations.
3. Good DRM means more legal free media, and lowerprices. Media studios in a non-DRM world are lesslikely to release much free media due to the habit itforms among consumers. Once a consumer is accustomedto downloading one free song, it is not that difficultfor them to find and download the whole album.
A bulletproof DRM system would make legal free musicmore common, given that the media companies can beassured of a revenue stream from the fee-based,DRM-protected media. Eminem ( news - web sites)'s recent single was oneof the most traded songs on the Internet beforethe album was released, helping to create a buzzaround the new album. I could see more studioswillingly tapping into that marketing opportunity ifthey were assured payment on the rest of the album.
Lastly, strong DRM increases the number of payingcustomers, giving producers more price flexibility. Digital distribution also costs less, making it easierfor smaller competitors to participate in the market. As discussed in item 2, universal DRM makes it easierfor smaller companies to generate revenue, makingtheir businesses more viable. An environment withmore competition borne of lower distribution andcollection costs and greater price flexibility willtend to drive prices down.
A TCPA computer would limit what consumers can do withprotected code and data on the system. This issomething to which we are already accustomed withother products we buy. We disallow trademarkinfringement so that companies can build brandrecognition that consumers can trust (grandma can'tmake Levi Strauss jeans in her spare room). We don'tallow people to republish Stephen King books at nocompensation to Mr. King or the publishing house withwhom he has a contract. People can't release for salea compilation of hits by the Police without paying theowner of those songs a licensing fee. Theselimitations are all designed to ensure the existenceof incentives to create.
The incentives created by strong DRM would drive aproliferation of digital content, attracting bothlarge and small producers to enter the market. That benefits consumers, and more than makes up forthe "harm" caused by limits on what consumers can dowith their computers.
John Carroll is a software engineer who lives in Switzerland. He specializes in the design and development of distributed systems using Java and .Net.
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