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DRM Issue Paper
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Digital Rights Management Digital Rights Management, or DRM for short, is a term that refers to a technological blocks or controls placed on media by their owners or publishers. The term is very similar to copyright protection, but refers more to the actual technological blocks placed on media to prevent unauthorized use. DRM can be found on many of today’s modern media items, and as time goes on it is becoming a more popular route for publishers and copyright owners to take with regards to digital content. DRM was initially created due to the fact that copyright owners wanted to limit unauthorized use of their intellectual properties. With the rise of Peer to Peer (p2p) networks in the late 1990s, many industries felt as if they were being undercompensated for created materials. Many p2p networks were involved in the illegal distribution of these materials, causing them to be available for “free” on the internet. If one end user legally acquired a file, he or she could then redistribute it to an unlimited number of people through networks like Napster, Kazaa, and over mediums like BitTorrent. Napster was the fuel that turned the DRM issue from a simple spark to a bonfire. Created in 1998 by Shawn Fanning, it allowed users to transfer mp3 files worldwide by uploading content directly from one user’s computer to another, then allowing that second computer to also upload the file, and this process can continue an infinite number of times. Fanning created the program while attending Northeastern University, with a simple design concept. Users could use the Napster program to find music files and distribute them with ease, as opposed to searching IRC channels endlessly with little to no success. Napster’s popularity grew exponentially as internet users worldwide saw the ease of which they could now access music files. The honeymoon came to an end however when the band Metallica found their unreleased demo ‘I disappear’ available for download through the service, as well as their entire discography. In 2000, Metallica sued the company and was soon followed by many other artists and record labels that were upset at their content being so easily available. It is only right however to note that because of this added media attention; Napster’s user base skyrocketed during the trial, promoting both the program and the artists (and adding a certain level of infamy to some of the artists involved). While the artists and labels won the fight against Napster, there were many other p2p networks that were making content available that the copyright holders were unhappy with. This is the primary reason that a sharp rise in DRM occurs in the early 2000s. Although forms of DRM had been used since the 1980s, in the form of unique software identification codes, media owners sought a new way to apply restrictions to their intellectual properties on the files themselves. Noting that the industry was changing rather rapidly, many labels determined that without some support of internet markets, they would fall behind. They applied DRM restrictions to the files that a user would have to acquire legally through authorized internet dealers. An example of this that is still thriving today is the iTunes music store. By purchasing any media file from Apple and iTunes, the user is also accepting the agreements to the DRM agreements labels and Apple have agreed on. If you download an mp3 from the iTunes Store for instance, you can only play that file in iTunes itself or on an authorized portable media player, which in this case is an iPod. Even though you’ve paid for this file, you cannot play it on another media player, such as a Microsoft Zune. This is not the only problem that DRM creates. Many forms of DRM are not back compatible with old technology. There have been attempts to apply DRM to compact discs, but many CD players cannot read the data files associated with the DRM, and as a result are unable to play the CD entirely. This is part of the reason that has caused DRM to remain relatively small in the retail store market. Furthermore, most artists upon signing a record deal are required to hand the copyrights of their works to the label that is promoting and publishing their media. This means that if an artist or group would like to make a single freely available online, they are unable to do so without the authorization of the new copyright holder. Most of the resulting money from record and digital file sales is also going directly to the label, and not the artists, which can in turn stifle creativity and innovation, propelling mere sales and numbers to the forefront. Many opponents of DRM wonder if free distribution of content is even harming the industry, claiming that it is also a viable promotional method. The Simpson’s Movie (2007) was widely available on p2p file sharing networks even before its release on July 27th, 2007. As of October 13th, 2007 the movie had grossed around $182 million in the US alone. The film’s opening weekend pulled in $74 million, $34 million over the parent companies estimations because of how widely available the film was online. Note that the film was created with a budget of $75 million dollars, making it more than double its budget in less than three months of release, and the film hasn’t even hit DVD sales. If a film can more than double its budget in less than three months while widely available online free of charge, is DRM even needed? Most companies in the industry have seen numbers like this, and have failed to acknowledge them. They will however instantly point to online distribution as the result of any failed album or movie, which is hard to rationalize given the numbers. There are artists that claim that if they owned the copyrights to their music and media and were allowed to distribute it as they saw fit, sales as well as innovation would skyrocket. Countless other artists and companies however disagree with this statement, proving that more testing is needed in a market that is rapidly changing. Radiohead set out to challenge the norm in October 2007, offering their newest album ‘In Rainbows’ for download online and DRM free, with a catch. Users could pay as much or as little as they wanted for the album. Having finished their six record deal with their record label, EMI, they chose to follow a new route for the distribution of their latest studio release. The experiment has already been quite profitable, and has only been available for a few weeks. The problems with DRM are almost endless. If you purchase DRM encoded files you are then limited to the contracts and agreements that company has with the publishing company. If you buy music in iTunes, you’re limited to use with only an iPod. The newest Apple iPod has a 160 GB hard drive which can hold up to 40,000 songs. If you were to purchase all these songs individually from iTunes, you would be looking at $40,000 worth of music for your portable device, before tax. On top of having files you cannot transfer to other devices, you’ve sunk more than years work for most people for the media. This is how the current setup expects its users to experience their media. Problems are not limited to music and video by any means. When BioShock, a cutting edge computer game, launched for the personal computer in 2007 it included a form of DRM to authorize legitimate buyers. Users that preordered the game and had it downloaded and ready to play on its date of release were met with the DRM authorization server crashing, and unable to play content that they had already purchased. On top of that, in order to play this single player game, you must have access to the internet at every startup so the DRM servers can check your software. This means that people that had not only legitimately purchased this software, but had done so before its release, were unable to experience anything they had purchased for a few days following its release. Steve Jobs, one of the primary stockholders in Apple Computers, owner of iTunes, has spoken out against DRM on many occasions. He wrote a public essay on February 6th, 2007, noting the many problems with DRM and the problems it causes online retailers. He notes that “over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies” in 2006 and that only about 10 percent of total music sales were forced to use DRM in online stores. While you would expect Jobs to be for DRM systems that require people to use iTunes, it makes sense that he would be against it. If iTunes can offer DRM free music, owners of other media players can still purchase from iTunes and use those files as they see fit. This does two things that are good for the industry. First it promotes the legitimate purchase of these files, and second it allows the user to do as they see fit with the content. Even though DRM has numerous problems, no real end is in sight for a totally DRM free market. Hopefully with bands like Radiohead proving that money can be made without holding content hostage, there will be less of a need for DRM based content in the future. Until then however, expect to be limited in the use of your digital content, as companies like Sony BMG and other major labels seem to have no plans of letting up on their stranglehold of content and its distribution. Works Cited: Jobs, Steve. "Thoughts on Music." Apple, Inc. 06 Feb. 2007. 13 Oct. 2007 http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/. "In Rainbows." Wikipedia. 20 Oct. 2007. 20 Oct. 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Rainbows/. "Napster." Wikipedia. 10 Oct. 2007. 13 Oc. 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster/. "BioShock." Wikipedia. 19 Oct. 2007. 20 Oct. 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioshock/. "Digital Rights Management." Wikipedia. 10 Oct. 2007. 10 Oct. 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management/. "The Simpsons Movie." MovieWeb. 31 Aug. 2007. 13 Oct. 2007 http://www.movieweb.com/movies/film/13/4013/boxoffice/.