Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM)[1] such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works.[2] DRM technologies govern the use, modification, and distribution of copyrighted works (such as software and multimedia content), as well as systems that enforce these policies within devices.[3]
Laws in many countries criminalize the circumvention of DRM, communication about such circumvention, and the creation and distribution of tools used for such circumvention.
Such laws are part of the United States' Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA),[4] and the European Union's Information Society Directive[5] (the French DADVSI is an example of a member state of the European Union implementing the directive).[6]
DRM techniques include licensing agreements[7] and encryption.[8]
The industry has expanded the usage of DRM to various hardware products, such as Keurig's coffeemakers,[9][10] Philips' light bulbs,[11][12] mobile device power chargers,[13][14][15] and John Deere's tractors.[16] For instance, tractor companies try to prevent farmers from making repairs under via DRM.[17]
DRM users argue that the technology is necessary to protect intellectual property, just as physical locks prevent personal property from theft,[1] that it can help the copyright holder maintain artistic control,[18] and to support licensing modalities such as rentals.[19]
DRM is not without controversy. Critics of DRM contend that no evidence proves that DRM helps prevent copyright infringement, arguing that it serves only to inconvenience legitimate customers, and that DRM can stifle innovation and competition.[20] Furthermore, works can become permanently inaccessible if the DRM scheme changes or if a required service is discontinued.[21] DRM technologies have been criticized for restricting individuals from copying or using the content legally, such as by fair use or by making backup copies. DRM is in common use by the entertainment industry (e.g., audio and video publishers).[22] Many online stores such as OverDrive, use DRM technologies, as do cable and satellite service operators. Apple removed DRM technology from iTunes around 2009.[23] Typical DRM also prevents lending materials out through a library, or accessing works in the public domain.[1]
Introduction
The rise of digital media and analog-to-digital conversion technologies has increased the concerns of copyright-owners, particularly within the music and video industries. While analog media inevitably lose quality with each copy generation and during normal use, digital media files may be duplicated without limit with no degradation. Digital devices make it convenient for consumers to convert (rip) media originally in a physical, analog or broadcast form into a digital form for portability or later use. Combined with the Internet and file-sharing tools, made unauthorized distribution of copyrighted content (digital piracy) much easier.
History
In 1983, the Software Service System (SSS) devised by the Japanese engineer Ryuichi Moriya was the first example of DRM technology. It was subsequently refined under the name superdistribution. The SSS was based on encryption, with specialized hardware that controlled decryption and enabled payments to be sent to the copyright holder. The underlying principle was that the physical distribution of encrypted digital products should be completely unrestricted and that users of those products would be encouraged to do so.[24]
An early DRM protection method for computer and Nintendo Entertainment System games was when the game would pause and prompt the player to look up a certain page in a booklet or manual that came with the game; if the player lacked access to the material, they would not be able to continue.
An early example of a DRM system is the Content Scramble System (CSS) employed by the DVD Forum on DVD movies. CSS uses an encryption algorithm to encrypt content on the DVD disc. Manufacturers of DVD players must license this technology and implement it in their devices so that they can decrypt the content. The CSS license agreement includes restrictions on how the DVD content is played, including what outputs are permitted and how such permitted outputs are made available. This keeps the encryption intact as the content is displayed.[citation needed]
In 1999, Jon Lech Johansen released DeCSS, which allowed a CSS-encrypted DVD to play on a computer running Linux, at a time when no compliant DVD player for Linux had yet been created. The legality of DeCSS is questionable: one of its authors was sued, and reproduction of the keys themselves is subject to restrictions as illegal numbers.[25]
More modern examples include ADEPT, FairPlay, Advanced Access Content System.
The World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty (WCT) was passed in 1996. The US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), was passed in 1998. The European Union enacted the Information Society Directive. In 2006, the lower house of the French parliament adopted such legislation as part of the controversial DADVSI law, but added that protected DRM techniques should be made interoperable, a move which caused widespread controversy in the United States. The Tribunal de grande instance de Paris concluded in 2006, that the complete blocking of any possibilities of making private copies was an impermissible behaviour under French copyright law.
The broadcast flag concept was developed by Fox Broadcasting in 2001, and was supported by the MPAA and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). A ruling in May 2005 by a United States courts of appeals held that the FCC lacked authority to impose it on the US TV industry. It required that all HDTVs obey a stream specification determining whether a stream can be recorded. This could block instances of fair use, such as time-shifting. It achieved more success elsewhere when it was adopted by the Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB), a consortium of about 250 broadcasters, manufacturers, network operators, software developers, and regulatory bodies from about 35 countries involved in attempting to develop new digital TV standards.
DVB (DVB-CPCM) is an updated variant of the broadcast flag. The technical specification was submitted to European governments in March 2007. As with much DRM, the CPCM system is intended to control use of copyrighted material by the end-user, at the direction of the copyright holder. According to Ren Bucholz of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), "You won't even know ahead of time whether and how you will be able to record and make use of particular programs or devices".[26] The normative sections were approved for publication by the DVB Steering Board, and formalized by ETSI as a formal European Standard (TS 102 825-X) where X refers to the Part number. Nobody has yet stepped forward to provide a Compliance and Robustness regime for the standard, so it is not presently possible to fully implement a system, as no supplier of device certificates has emerged.
In mid-2008, the Windows version of Mass Effect marked the start of a wave of titles primarily making use of SecuROM for DRM and requiring authentication with a server. The use of the DRM scheme in 2008's Spore led to protests, resulting in searches for an unlicensed version. This backlash against the activation limit led Spore to become the most pirated game in 2008, topping the top 10 list compiled by TorrentFreak.[27][28] However, Tweakguides concluded that DRM does not appear to increase video game piracy, noting that other games on the list, such as Call of Duty 4 and Assassin's Creed, use DRM without limits or online activation. Additionally, other video games that use DRM, such as BioShock, Crysis Warhead, and Mass Effect, do not appear on the list.[29]
Many mainstream publishers continued to rely on online DRM throughout the later half of 2008 and early 2009, including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Valve, and Atari, The Sims 3 being a notable exception in the case of Electronic Arts.[30] Ubisoft broke with the tendency to use online DRM in late 2008, with the release of Prince of Persia as an experiment to "see how truthful people really are" regarding the claim that DRM was inciting people to use illegal copies.[31] Although Ubisoft has not commented on the results of the "experiment", Tweakguides noted that two torrents on Mininova had over 23,000 people downloading the game within 24 hours of its release.[32]
Ubisoft formally announced a return to online authentication on 9 February 2010, through its Uplay online game platform, starting with Silent Hunter 5, The Settlers 7, and Assassin's Creed II.[33] Silent Hunter 5 was first reported to have been compromised within 24 hours of release,[34] but users of the cracked version soon found out that only early parts of the game were playable.[35] The Uplay system works by having the installed game on the local PCs incomplete and then continuously downloading parts of the game code from Ubisoft's servers as the game progresses.[36] It was more than a month after the PC release in the first week of April that software was released that could bypass Ubisoft's DRM in Assassin's Creed II. The software did this by emulating a Ubisoft server for the game. Later that month, a real crack was released that was able to remove the connection requirement altogether.[37][38]
In March 2010, Uplay servers suffered a period of inaccessibility due to a large-scale DDoS attack, causing around 5% of game owners to become locked out of playing their game.[39] The company later credited owners of the affected games with a free download, and there has been no further downtime.[40]
Other developers, such as Blizzard Entertainment put most of the game logic is on the "side" or taken care of by the servers of the game maker. Blizzard uses this strategy for its game Diablo III and Electronic Arts used this same strategy with their reboot of SimCity, the necessity of which has been questioned.[41]
Windows Media DRM, reads instructions from media files in a rights management language that states what the user may do with the media.[42] Later versions of Windows Media DRM implemented music subscription services that make downloaded files unplayable after subscriptions are cancelled, along with the ability for a regional lockout.[43]
Technologies
Verification
Product keys
A product key, typically an alphanumerical string, can represent a license to a particular copy of software. During the installation process or software launch, the user is asked to enter the key; if the key is valid (typically via internal algorithms), the key is accepted, and the user can continue. Product keys can be combined with other DRM practices (such as online "activation"), to prevent cracking the software to run without a product key, or using a keygen to generate acceptable keys.
Activation limits
DRM can limit the number of devices on which a legal user can install content. This restriction typically support 3-5 devices. This affects users who have more devices than the limit. Some allow one device to be replaced with another. Without this software and hardware upgrades may require an additional purchase.
Persistent online DRM
Always-on DRM checks and rechecks authorization while the content is in use by interacting with a server operated by the copyright holder. In some cases, only part of the content is actually installed, while the rest is downloaded dynamically during use.
Encryption
Encryption alters content in a way that means that it can be used without first decrypting it. Encryption can ensure that other restriction measures cannot be bypassed by modifying software, so DRM systems typically rely on encryption in addition to other techniques.
Copy restriction
Microsoft PlayReady prevents illicit copying of multimedia and other files.[44]
Restrictions can be applied to electronic books and documents, in order to prevent copying, printing, forwarding, and creating backup copies. This is common for both e-publishers and enterprise Information Rights Management. It typically integrates with content management system software.[45]
While some commentators claim that DRM complicates e-book publishing,[46] it has been used by organizations such as the British Library in its secure electronic delivery service to permit worldwide access to rare documents which, for legal reasons, were previously only available to authorized individuals actually visiting the Library's document centre.[47][48][49]
Four main e-book DRM schemes are in common use, from Adobe, Amazon, Apple, and the Marlin Trust Management Organization (MTMO).
- Adobe's DRM is applied to EPUBs and PDFs, and can be read by several third-party e-book readers, as well as Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) software. Barnes & Noble uses DRM technology provided by Adobe, applied to EPUBs and the older PDB (Palm OS) format e-books.
- Amazon's DRM is an adaption of the original Mobipocket encryption and is applied to Amazon's .azw4, KF8, and Mobipocket format e-books. Topaz format e-books have their own encryption system.[50]
- Apple's FairPlay DRM is applied to EPUBs and can be read only by Apple's iBooks app on iOS devices and Mac OS computers.[citation needed]
- The Marlin DRM was developed and is maintained by open industry group Marlin Developer Community (MDC) and is licensed by MTMO. (Marlin was founded by Intertrust, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, and Sony.) Online textbook publisher Kno uses Marlin to protect EPUB books. These books can be read on the Kno App for iOS and Android.
Runtime restrictions
Windows Vista contains a DRM system called Protected Media Path, which contains Protected Video Path (PVP). PVP tries to stop DRM-restricted content from playing while unsigned software is running, in order to prevent the unsigned software from accessing the content. Additionally, PVP can encrypt information during transmission to the monitor or the graphics card, which makes it more difficult to make unauthorized recordings.
Bohemia Interactive have used a form of technology since Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, wherein if the game copy is suspected of being unauthorized, annoyances like guns losing their accuracy or the players turning into a bird are introduced.[51] Croteam's Serious Sam 3: BFE causes a special invincible foe in the game to appear and constantly attack the player until they are killed.[52][53]
Regional lockout
Regional lockout (or region coding) prevents the use of a certain product or service, except in a specific region or territory. Lockout may be enforced through physical means, through technological means such as inspecting the user's IP address or using an identifying code, or through unintentional means introduced by devices that support only region-specific technologies (such as video formats, i.e., NTSC and PAL).
Tracking
Watermarks
Digital watermarks can be steganographically embedded within audio or video data. They can be used for recording the copyright owner, the distribution chain or identifying the purchaser. They are not complete DRM mechanisms in their own right, but are used as part of a system for copyright enforcement, such as helping provide evidence for legal purposes, rather than enforcing restrictions.[54]
Some audio/video editing programs may distort, delete, or otherwise interfere with watermarks. Signal/modulator-carrier chromatography may separate watermarks from the recording or detect them as glitches. Additionally, comparison of two separately obtained copies of audio using basic algorithms can reveal watermarks.[citation needed]
Metadata
Sometimes, metadata is included in purchased media which records information such as the purchaser's name, account information, or email address. Also included may be the file's publisher, author, creation date, download date, and various notes. This information is not embedded in the content, as a watermark is. It is kept separate from the content, but within the file or stream.
As an example, metadata is used in media purchased from iTunes for DRM-free as well as DRM-restricted content. This information is included as MPEG standard metadata.[55][56]
Hardware
US Cable television set-top boxes require a specific piece of hardware to operate. The CableCard standard is used to restrict content to services to which the customer is subscribed. Content has an embedded broadcast flag that the card examines to decide whether the content can be viewed by a specific user.
Implementations
- Analog Protection System (Macrovision)
- DCS Copy Protection
- B-CAS
- CableCARD
- Broadcast flag
- DVB-CPCM
- Copy Control Information
- ISDB#Copy-protection technology
- FairPlay
- Sony rootkit
- Content Scramble System (CSS)
- ARccOS protection
- Advanced Access Content System (AACS)
- Content Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM)
- Digital Transmission Content Protection
- High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP)
- Protected Media Path
- Trusted Platform Module#Uses
- Intel Management Engine#Design
- Cinavia
- HTML5 video Encrypted Media Extensions (HTML5 EME, often implemented with Widevine)
- Denuvo
- StarForce
- SafeDisc
- SecuROM
In addition, platforms such as Steam may include DRM mechanisms. Most of the mechanisms above are copy protection mechanisms rather than DRM mechanisms per se.
Laws
The World Intellectual Property Organization suppports the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty (WCT) which requires nations to enact laws against DRM circumvention.
China
China's Interim Regulations ostensibly regulate digital content. China claims to protect intellectual property rights, although the World Trade Organization (WTO) "determined that China's copyright laws do not provide the same efficacy to non-Chinese nationals as they do to Chinese citizens, as required by the Berne Convention" and that "China's copyright laws do not provide enforcement procedures so as to permit effective action against any act of infringement of intellectual property rights".[57]
European Union
On 22 May 2001, the European Union passed the Information Society Directive, an implementation of the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty, that addressed many of the same issues as the DMCA.
On 25 April 2007, the European Parliament supported the first directive of EU, which aims to harmonize criminal law in the member states. It adopted a first reading report on harmonizing the national measures for fighting copyright abuse. If the European Parliament and the Council approve the legislation, the submitted directive will oblige the member states to consider a crime a violation of international copyright committed with commercial purposes. The text suggests numerous measures: from fines to imprisonment, depending on the gravity of the offense. The EP members supported the Commission motion, changing some of the texts. They excluded patent rights from the range of the directive and decided that the sanctions should apply only to offenses with commercial purposes. Copying for personal, non-commercial purposes was also excluded from the range of the directive.
In 2012, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in favor of reselling copyrighted games, prohibiting any preventative action that would prevent such transaction.[58] The court said that "The first sale in the EU of a copy of a computer program by the copyright holder or with his consent exhausts the right of distribution of that copy in the EU. A rightholder who has marketed a copy in the territory of a Member State of the EU thus loses the right to rely on his monopoly of exploitation in order to oppose the resale of that copy."[59]
In 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that circumventing DRM on game devices may be legal under some circumstances, limiting the legal protection to only cover technological measures intended to prevent or eliminate unauthorised acts of reproduction, communication, public offer or distribution.[60][61]
India
India is not a signatory to WIPO Copyright Treaty nor the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.[62] However, as a part of its 2012 amendment of copyright laws, it implemented digital rights management protection.[63] Section 65A of Copyright Act, 1957 imposed criminal sanctions on circumvention of "effective technological protection measures".[64] Section 65B criminalized interference with digital rights management information. Any distribution of copies whose rights management information was modified was also criminalized by Section 65B.[64] The terms used in the provisions were not specifically defined, with the concerned Parliamentary Standing Committee indicating the same to have been deliberate. The Standing Committee noted that similar terms in developed terms were used to considerable complexity and therefore in light of the same, it was preferable to keep it open-ended.[64]
A prison sentence is mandatory under both provisions, with a maximum term of two years in addition to a fine, which is discretionary. While the statute does not include exceptions to copyright infringement, including fair use directly, Section 65A allows measures "unless they are expressly prohibited", which may implicitly include such exceptions.[63] Section 65B however, lacks any exceptions.[65] Further. Section 65B (digital rights management information) allows resort to other civil provisions, unlike Section 65A.[65][64]
The WIPO Internet Treaties themselves do not mandate criminal sanctions, merely requiring "effective legal remedies".[66] Thus, India's adoption of criminal sanctions ensures compliance with the highest standards of the WIPO internet treaties. Given the 2012 amendment, India's entry to the WIPO Internet Treaties appears facilitated,[67] especially since ratification of the WIPO Internet Treaties is mandatory under agreements like the RCEP.[63]
Israel
As of 2019 Israel had not ratified the WIPO Copyright Treaty. Israeli law does not currently expressly prohibit the circumvention of technological measures used to implement digital rights management. In June 2012 The Israeli Ministry of Justice proposed a bill to prohibit such activities, but the Knesset did not pass it. In September 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the current copyright law could not be interpreted to prohibit the circumvention of digital rights management, though the Court left open the possibility that such activities could result in liability under the law of unjust enrichment.[68]
United States
In May 1998, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) passed as an amendment to US copyright law, which criminalizes the production and dissemination of technology that lets users circumvent technical copy-restriction methods. (For a more detailed analysis of the statute, see WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act.)
Reverse engineering of existing systems is expressly permitted under the Act under the specific condition of a safe harbor, where circumvention is necessary to achieve interoperability with other software . See 17 U.S.C. Sec. 1201(f). Open-source software to decrypt content scrambled with the Content Scrambling System and other encryption techniques presents an intractable problem with the application of the Act. Much depends on the intent of the actor. If the decryption is done for the purpose of achieving interoperability of open source operating systems with proprietary operating systems, it would be protected by Section 1201(f) the Act. Cf., Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corley, 273 F.3d 429 (2d Cir. 2001) at notes 5 and 16. However, dissemination of such software for the purpose of violating or encouraging others to violate copyrights has been held illegal. See Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Reimerdes, 111 F. Supp. 2d 346 (S.D.N.Y. 2000).
The DMCA has been largely ineffective in protecting DRM systems,[69] as software allowing users to circumvent DRM remains widely available. However, those who wish to preserve the DRM systems have attempted to use the Act to restrict the distribution and development of such software, as in the case of DeCSS.
Although the Act contains an exception for research, the exception is subject to vague qualifiers that do little to reassure researchers. Cf., 17 U.S.C. Sec. 1201(g). The DMCA has affected cryptography, because many[who?] fear that cryptanalytic research may violate the DMCA. In 2001, the arrest of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov for alleged infringement of the DMCA was a highly publicized example of the law's use to prevent or penalize development of anti-DRM measures. He was arrested in the US after a presentation at DEF CON, and spent several months in jail. The DMCA has also been cited as chilling to non-criminal inclined users, such as students of cryptanalysis including, Professor Edward Felten and students at Princeton University;[70] security consultants, such as Netherlands based Niels Ferguson, who declined to publish vulnerabilities he discovered in Intel's secure-computing scheme due to fear of being arrested under the DMCA when he travels to the US; and blind or visually impaired users of screen readers or other assistive technologies.[71]
International issues
In Europe, there have been several ongoing dialog activities that are characterized by their consensus-building intention:
- January 2001 Workshop on Digital Rights Management of the World Wide Web Consortium .[72]
- 2003 Participative preparation of the European Committee for Standardization/Information Society Standardization System (CEN/ISSS) DRM Report.[73]
- 2005 DRM Workshops of Directorate-General for Information Society and Media (European Commission), and the work of the High Level Group on DRM.[74]
- 2005 Gowers Review of Intellectual Property by the British Government from Andrew Gowers published in 2006 with recommendations regarding copyright terms, exceptions, orphaned works, and copyright enforcement.
- 2004 Consultation process of the European Commission, DG Internal Market, on the Communication COM(2004)261 by the European Commission on "Management of Copyright and Related Rights" (closed).[75]
- The AXMEDIS project, a European Commission Integrated Project of the FP6, has as its main goal automating content production, copy protection, and distribution, to reduce the related costs, and to support DRM at both B2B and B2C areas, harmonizing them.
- The INDICARE project is an ongoing dialogue on consumer acceptability of DRM solutions in Europe. It is an open and neutral platform for exchange of facts and opinions, mainly based on articles by authors from science and practice.
Notable lawsuits
Opposition
Many organizations, prominent individuals, and computer scientists are opposed to DRM. Two notable DRM critics are John Walker, as expressed for instance, in his article "The Digital Imprimatur: How Big brother and big media can put the Internet genie back in the bottle",[76] and Richard Stallman in his article The Right to Read[77] and in other public statements: "DRM is an example of a malicious feature – a feature designed to hurt the user of the software, and therefore, it's something for which there can never be toleration".[78] Stallman also believes that using the word "rights" is misleading and suggests that the word "restrictions", as in "Digital Restrictions Management", be used instead.[79] This terminology has since been adopted by many other writers and critics unconnected with Stallman.[80][81][82]
Other prominent critics of DRM include Professor Ross Anderson of Cambridge University, who heads a British organization which opposes DRM and similar efforts in the UK and elsewhere, and Cory Doctorow, a writer and technology blogger.[83] The EFF and similar organizations such as FreeCulture.org also hold positions which are characterized as opposed to DRM.[84] The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure has criticized DRM's effect as a trade barrier from a free market perspective.[85]
Bill Gates spoke about DRM at CES in 2006. According to him, DRM is not where it should be, and causes problems for legitimate consumers while trying to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate users.[86]
There have been numerous others who see DRM at a more fundamental level. This is similar to some of the ideas in Michael H. Goldhaber's presentation about "The Attention Economy and the Net" at a 1997 conference on the "Economics of Digital Information".[87] (sample quote from the "Advice for the Transition" section of that presentation:[87] "If you can't figure out how to afford it without charging, you may be doing something wrong.")
The Norwegian consumer rights organization "Forbrukerrådet" complained to Apple Inc. in 2007, about the company's use of DRM in, and in conjunction with, its iPod and iTunes products. Apple was accused of restricting users' access to their music and videos in an unlawful way, and of using EULAs which conflict with Norwegian consumer legislation. The complaint was supported by consumers' ombudsmen in Sweden and Denmark, and is currently[when?] being reviewed in the EU. Similarly, the United States Federal Trade Commission held hearings in March 2009, to review disclosure of DRM limitations to customers' use of media products.[88]
Valve president Gabe Newell also stated "most DRM strategies are just dumb" because they only decrease the value of a game in the consumer's eyes. Newell suggests that the goal should instead be "[creating] greater value for customers through service value". Valve operates Steam, a service which serves as an online store for PC games, as well as a social networking service and a DRM platform.[89]
At the 2012 Game Developers Conference, the CEO of CD Projekt Red, Marcin Iwinski, announced that the company will not use DRM in any of its future releases. Iwinski stated of DRM, "It's just over-complicating things. We release the game. It's cracked in two hours, it was no time for Witcher 2. What really surprised me is that the pirates didn't use the GOG version, which was not protected. They took the SecuROM retail version, cracked it and said 'we cracked it' – meanwhile there's a non-secure version with a simultaneous release. You'd think the GOG version would be the one floating around." Iwinski added after the presentation, "DRM does not protect your game. If there are examples that it does, then people maybe should consider it, but then there are complications with legit users."[90]
The Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers have historically opposed DRM, even going so far as to name AACS as a technology "most likely to fail" in an issue of IEEE Spectrum.[91]
Tools like FairUse4WM have been created to strip Windows Media of DRM restrictions.[92] Websites – such as library.nu (shut down by court order on 15 February 2012), BookFi, BookFinder, Library Genesis, and Sci-Hub – have gone further to allow downloading e-books by violating copyright.[93][94][95][96]
Public licenses
The latest version of the GNU General Public License version 3, as released by the Free Software Foundation, has a provision that "strips" DRM of its legal value, so people can break the DRM on GPL software without breaking laws like the DMCA. Also, in May 2006, the FSF launched a "Defective by Design" campaign against DRM.[97][98]
Creative Commons provides licensing options encouraging the expansion of and building upon creative work without the use of DRM.[99] In addition, Creative Commons licenses have anti-DRM clauses, therefore the use of DRM by a licensee to restrict the freedoms granted by a Creative Commons license is a breach of the Baseline Rights asserted by the licenses.[100]
DRM-free works
In reaction to opposition to DRM, many publishers and artists label their works as "DRM-free". Major companies that have done so include the following:
- Apple Inc. sold DRM content on their iTunes Store when it launched in 2003, but made music DRM-free after April 2007[101] and has been labeling all music as "DRM-Free" since January 2009.[102] The files still carry tags to identify the purchaser. Other works sold on iTunes such as apps, audiobooks, movies, and TV shows continue to be protected by DRM.[103]
- Since 2014, Comixology, which distributes digital comics, has allowed rights holders to provide the option of a DRM-free download of purchased comics. Publishers which allow this include Dynamite Entertainment, Image Comics, Thrillbent, Top Shelf Productions, and Zenescope Entertainment.[104]
- GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games), a digital distributor since 2008, specializes in the distribution of PC video games. While most other digital distribution services allow various forms of DRM (or have them embedded), gog.com has a strict non-DRM policy.[105]
- Tor Books, a major publisher of science fiction and fantasy books, first sold DRM-free e-books in July 2012.[106] Smaller e-book publishers, such as Baen Books and O'Reilly Media, had already forgone DRM previously.
- Vimeo on Demand is one of the publishers included in the Free Software Foundation's DRM-free guide.[107]
Shortcomings
Reliability
Many DRM systems require authentication with an online server. Whenever the server goes down, or a region or country experiences an Internet outage, it effectively locks out people from registering or using the material. This is especially true for a product that requires a persistent online authentication, where, for example, a successful DDoS attack on the server would essentially make all copies of the material unusable.
Additionally, any system that requires contact with an authentication server is vulnerable to that server's becoming unavailable, as happened in 2007, when videos purchased from Major League Baseball (mlb.com) prior to 2006 became unplayable due to a change to the servers that validate the licenses.[108]
Usability
Discs with DRM schemes are not standards-compliant compact discs (CDs) but are rather CD-ROM media. Therefore, they all lack the CD logotype found on discs which follow the standard (known as Red Book). These CDs cannot be played on all CD players or personal computers. Personal computers running Microsoft Windows sometimes even crash when attempting to play the CDs.[109]
Performance
Certain DRM systems have been associated with performance drawbacks: some computer games implementing Denuvo Anti-Tamper have performed better after that was patched out.[110][111] However, the impact on performance can be minimized depending on how the system is integrated.[112] In March 2018, PC Gamer tested Final Fantasy XV for the performance effects of Denuvo, which was found to cause no negative gameplay impact despite a little increase in loading time.[113]
Fundamental bypass
Always technically breakable
DRM schemes, especially software based ones, can never be wholly secure since the software must include all the information necessary to decrypt the content, such as the decryption keys. An attacker will be able to extract this information, directly decrypt and copy the content, which bypasses the restrictions imposed by a DRM system.[83] Even with the industrial-grade Advanced Access Content System (AACS) for HD DVD and Blu-ray Discs, a process key was published by hackers in December 2006, which enabled unrestricted access to AACS-protected content.[114] After the first keys were revoked, further cracked keys were released.[115]
Some DRM schemes use encrypted media which requires purpose-built hardware to decode the content. A common real-world example can be found in commercial direct broadcast satellite television systems such as DirecTV and Malaysia's Astro. The company uses tamper-resistant smart cards to store decryption keys so that they are hidden from the user and the satellite receiver. This appears to ensure that only licensed users with the hardware can access the content. While this in principle can work, it is extremely difficult to build the hardware to protect the secret key against a sufficiently determined adversary. Many such systems have failed in the field. Once the secret key is known, building a version of the hardware that performs no checks is often relatively straightforward. In addition user verification provisions are frequently subject to attack, pirate decryption being among the most frequented ones.
Bruce Schneier argues that digital copy prevention is futile: "What the entertainment industry is trying to do is to use technology to contradict that natural law. They want a practical way to make copying hard enough to save their existing business. But they are doomed to fail."[116] He has also described trying to make digital files uncopyable as being like "trying to make water not wet".[117] The creators of StarForce also take this stance, stating that "The purpose of copy protection is not making the game uncrackable – it is impossible."[118]
Analog recording
All forms of DRM for audio and visual material (excluding interactive materials, e.g., video games) are subject to the analog hole, namely that in order for a viewer to play the material, the digital signal must be turned into an analog signal containing light and/or sound for the viewer, and so available to be copied as no DRM is capable of controlling content in this form. In other words, a user could play a purchased audio file while using a separate program to record the sound back into the computer into a DRM-free file format.
All DRM to date can therefore be bypassed by recording this signal and digitally storing and distributing it in a non DRM limited form, by anyone who has the technical means of recording the analog stream. Furthermore, the analog hole cannot be overcome without the additional protection of externally imposed restrictions, such as legal regulations, because the vulnerability is inherent to all analog means of transmission.[119] However, the conversion from digital to analog and back is likely to force a loss of quality, particularly when using lossy digital formats. HDCP is an attempt to plug the analog hole, although as of 2009, it was largely ineffective.[120][121]
Asus released a soundcard which features a function called "Analog Loopback Transformation" to bypass the restrictions of DRM. This feature allows the user to record DRM-restricted audio via the soundcard's built-in analog I/O connection.[122][123]
In order to prevent this exploit, there has been some discussions between copyright holders and manufacturers of electronics capable of playing such content to no longer include analog connectivity in their devices.[124] The movement, dubbed as "Analog Sunset", has seen a steady decline in analog output options on most Blu-ray devices manufactured after 2010.[124]
Consumer rights implication
Ownership issue after purchase
DRM opponents argue that the presence of DRM violates existing private property rights and restricts a range of heretofore normal and legal user activities. A DRM component would control a device a user owns (such as a digital audio player) by restricting how it may act with regard to certain content, overriding some of the user's wishes (for example, preventing the user from burning a copyrighted song to CD as part of a compilation or a review). Doctorow has described this possibility as "the right to make up your own copyright laws".[125]
An example of this restriction to legal user activities may be seen in Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system in which content using a Protected Media Path is disabled or degraded depending on the DRM scheme's evaluation of whether the hardware and its use are 'secure'.[126] All forms of DRM depend on the DRM-enabled device (e.g., computer, DVD player, TV) imposing restrictions that cannot be disabled or modified by the user. Key issues around DRM such as the right to make personal copies, provisions for persons to lend copies to friends, provisions for service discontinuance, hardware agnosticism, software and operating system agnosticism,[127] contracts for public libraries, and customers' protection against one-side amendments of the contract by the publisher have not been fully addressed. It has also been pointed out that it is entirely unclear whether owners of content with DRM are legally permitted to pass on their property as inheritance to another person.[128]
In one instance of DRM that caused a rift with consumers, Amazon.com in July 2009, remotely deleted purchased copies of George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) from customers' Amazon Kindles after providing them a refund for the purchased products.[129] Commentators have described these actions as Orwellian and have compared Amazon to Big Brother from Nineteen Eighty-Four.[130][131][132][133] After Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos issued a public apology, the Free Software Foundation wrote that this was just one more example of the excessive power Amazon has to remotely censor what people read through its software, and called upon Amazon to free its e-book reader and drop DRM.[134] Amazon then revealed the reason behind its deletion: the e-books in question were unauthorized reproductions of Orwell's works, which were not within the public domain and to which the company that published and sold them on Amazon's service had no rights.[135]
Compulsory bundled software
In 2005, Sony BMG introduced new DRM technology which installed DRM software on users' computers without clearly notifying the user or requiring confirmation. Among other things, the installed software included a rootkit, which created a severe security vulnerability others could exploit. When the nature of the DRM involved was made public much later, Sony BMG initially minimized the significance of the vulnerabilities its software had created, but was eventually compelled to recall millions of CDs, and released several attempts to patch the surreptitiously included software to at least remove the rootkit. Several class action lawsuits were filed, which were ultimately settled by agreements to provide affected consumers with a cash payout or album downloads free of DRM.[136]
Obsolescence
When standards and formats change, it may be difficult to transfer DRM-restricted content to new media, for instance Microsoft's new media player Zune did not support content that uses Microsoft's own PlaysForSure DRM scheme they had previously been selling.[137]
Furthermore, when a company undergoes business changes or even bankruptcy, its previous services may become unavailable. Examples include MSN Music,[138] Yahoo! Music Store,[139] Adobe Content Server 3 for Adobe PDF,[140] Acetrax Video on Demand,[141] etc..
Selective enforcement
DRM laws are widely flouted: according to Australia Official Music Chart Survey, copyright infringements from all causes are practised by millions of people.[142] According to the EFF, "in an effort to attract customers, these music services try to obscure the restrictions they impose on you with clever marketing."[143]
Economic implication
Jeff Raikes, ex-president of the Microsoft Business Division, stated: "If they're going to pirate somebody, we want it to be us rather than somebody else".[144] An analogous argument was made in an early paper by Kathleen Conner and Richard Rummelt.[145] A subsequent study of digital rights management for e-books by Gal Oestreicher-Singer and Arun Sundararajan showed that relaxing some forms of DRM can be beneficial to digital rights holders because the losses from piracy are outweighed by the increases in value to legal buyers.[146]
Also, free distribution, even if unauthorized, can be beneficial to small or new content providers by spreading and popularizing content. With a larger consumer base by sharing and word of mouth, the number of paying customers also increases, resulting in more profits. Several musicians[who?] have grown to popularity by posting their music videos on sites like YouTube where the content is free to listen to. This method of putting the product out in the world free of DRM not only generates a greater following but also fuels greater revenue through other merchandise (hats, T-shirts), concert tickets, and of course, more sales of the content to paying consumers.
Push away legitimate customer
While the main intent of DRM is to prevent unauthorized copies of a product, there are mathematical models that suggest that DRM schemes can fail to do their job on multiple levels.[147] The biggest failure is the burden that DRM poses on a legitimate customer will reduce the customer's willingness to pay for the product. An ideal DRM would be one which imposes zero restrictions on legal buyers but imposes restrictions on copyright infringers.
In January 2007, EMI stopped publishing audio CDs with DRM, stating that "the costs of DRM do not measure up to the results."[148] In March, Musicload.de, one of Europe's largest internet music retailers, announced their position strongly against DRM. In an open letter, Musicload stated that three out of every four calls to their customer support phone service are as a result of consumer frustration with DRM.[149]
The mathematical models are strictly applied to the music industry (music CDs, downloadable music). These models could be extended to the other industries such as the gaming industry which show similarities to the music industry model. There are real instances when DRM restrain consumers in the gaming industry. Some DRM games are required to connect to the Internet in order to play them.[150] Good Old Games' head of public relations and marketing, Trevor Longino, in agreement with this, believes that using DRM is less effective than improving a game's value in reducing video game infringement.[151] However, TorrentFreak published a "Top 10 pirated games of 2008" list which shows that intrusive DRM is not the main reason why some games are copied more heavily than others. Popular games such as BioShock, Crysis Warhead, and Mass Effect which use intrusive DRM are absent from the list.[29]
Anti-competition practice
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) consider the use of DRM systems to be an anti-competitive practice.[152]
Alternatives
Several business models have been proposed that offer an alternative to the use of DRM by content providers and rights holders.[153]
"Easy and cheap"
The first business model that dissuades illegal file sharing is to make downloading digital media easy and cheap. The use of noncommercial sites makes downloading digital media complex. For example, misspelling an artist's name in a search query will often fail to return a result, and some sites limit internet traffic, which can make downloading media a long and frustrating process. Furthermore, illegal file sharing websites are often host to viruses and malware which attach themselves to the files (see torrent poisoning).[154] If digital media (for example, songs) are all provided on accessible, legitimate sites, and are reasonably priced, consumers will purchase media legally to overcome these frustrations.[153]
Comedian Louis C.K. made headlines in 2011, with the release of his concert film Live at the Beacon Theater as an inexpensive (US$5), DRM-free download. The only attempt to deter unlicensed copies was a letter emphasizing the lack of corporate involvement and direct relationship between artist and viewer. The film was a commercial success, turning a profit within 12 hours of its release. Some, including the artist himself, have suggested that file sharing rates were lower than normal as a result, making the release an important case study for the digital marketplace.[155][156][157]
Webcomic Diesel Sweeties released a DRM-free PDF e-book on author R Stevens's 35th birthday,[158][159][160] He followed this with a DRM-free iBook specifically for the iPad, using Apple's new software,[161] which generated more than 10,000 downloads in three days.[162] That led Stevens to launch a Kickstarter project – "ebook stravaganza 3000" – to fund the conversion of 3,000 comics, written over 12 years, into a single "humongous" e-book to be released both for free and through the iBookstore; launched 8 February 2012, with the goal of raising $3,000 in 30 days. The "payment optional" DRM-free model in this case was adopted on Stevens' view that "there is a class of webcomics reader who would prefer to read in large chunks and, even better, would be willing to spend a little money on it."[162]
Crowdfunding or pre-order model
In February 2012, Double Fine asked for crowdfunding for an upcoming video game, Double Fine Adventure, on Kickstarter and offered the game DRM-free for backers. This project exceeded its original goal of $400,000 in 45 days, raising in excess of $2 million.[163] In this case DRM freedom was offered to backers as an incentive for supporting the project before release, with the consumer and community support and media attention from the highly successful Kickstarter drive counterbalancing any loss through file sharing.[citation needed] Also, crowdfunding with the product itself as benefit for the supporters can be seen as pre-order or subscription business model in which one motivation for DRM, the uncertainty if a product will have enough paying customers to outweigh the development costs, is eliminated. After the success of Double Fine Adventure, many games were crowd-funded and many of them offered a DRM-free game version for the backers.[164][165][166]
Digital content as promotion for traditional products
Many artists are using the Internet to give away music to create awareness and liking to a new upcoming album. The artists release a new song on the internet for free download, which consumers can download. The hope is to have the listeners buy the new album because of the free download.[153] A common practice used today is releasing a song or two on the internet for consumers to indulge. In 2007, Radiohead released an album named In Rainbows, in which fans could pay any amount they want, or download it for free.[167]
Artistic Freedom Voucher
The Artistic Freedom Voucher (AFV) introduced by Dean Baker is a way for consumers to support "creative and artistic work". In this system, each consumer would have a refundable tax credit of $100 to give to any artist of creative work. To restrict fraud, the artists must register with the government. The voucher prohibits any artist that receives the benefits from copyrighting their material for a certain length of time. Consumers can obtain music for a certain amount of time easily and the consumer decides which artists receive the $100. The money can either be given to one artist or to many, the distribution is up to the consumer.[168]
See also
- Anti-tamper software
- Closed platform
- Digital asset management
- Hardware restrictions
- License manager
- ODRL
- Software metering
- Software protection dongle
- Secure Digital Music Initiative
- Trusted Computing
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Further reading
- Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture, published by Basic Books in 2004, is available for free download in PDF format Archived 16 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine. The book is a legal and social history of copyright. Lessig is well known, in part, for arguing landmark cases on copyright law. A Professor of Law at Stanford University, Lessig writes for an educated lay audience, including for non-lawyers. He is, for the most part, an opponent of DRM technologies.
- Rosenblatt, B. et al., Digital Rights Management: Business and Technology, published by M&T Books (John Wiley & Sons) in 2001. An overview of DRM technology, business implications for content publishers, and relationship to U.S. copyright law.
- Consumer's Guide to DRM, published in 10 languages (Czech, German, Greek, English, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Swedish), produced by the INDICARE research and dialogue project
- Eberhard Becker, Willms Buhse, Dirk Günnewig, Niels Rump: Digital Rights Management – Technological, Economic, Legal and Political Aspects. An 800-page compendium from 60 different authors on DRM.
- Arun Sundararajan's uses the following digital rights conjecture, that "digital rights increases the incidence of digital piracy, and that managing digital rights therefore involves restricting the rights of usage that contribute to customer value" to show that creative pricing can be an effective substitute for excessively stringent DRM.
- Fetscherin, M., Implications of Digital Rights Management on the Demand for Digital Content, provides an excellent view on DRM from a consumers perspective. "Buch- und online Publikationen". dissertation.de. 5 February 1998. Archived from the original on 5 December 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- The Pig and the Box, a book with colorful illustrations and having a coloring book version, by 'MCM'. It describes DRM in terms suited to kids, written in reaction to a Canadian entertainment industry copyright education initiative, aimed at children.
- Present State and Emerging Scenarios of Digital Rights Management Systems – A paper by Marc Fetscherin which provides an overview of the various components of DRM, pro and cons and future outlook of how, where, when such systems might be used.
- DRM is Like Paying for Ice – Richard Menta article on MP3 Newswire discusses how DRM is implemented in ways to control consumers, but is undermining perceived product value in the process.
- ' – PhD Thesis by Roberto García that tries to address DRM issues using Semantic Web technologies and methodologies.
- Patricia Akester, "Technological Accommodation of Conflicts between Freedom of Expression and DRM: The First Empirical Assessment" available at Technological Accommodation of Conflicts between Freedom of Expression and DRM: The First Empirical Assessment Archived 16 February 2022 at the Wayback Machine (unveiling, through empirical lines of enquiry, (1) whether certain acts which are permitted by law are being adversely affected by the use of DRM and (2) whether technology can accommodate conflicts between freedom of expression and DRM).
External links
- BBC News Technology Q&A: What is DRM?
- Copyright vs Community in the Age of Computer Networks by Richard Stallman
- Windows Media DRM FAQ at the Wayback Machine (archived 8 December 2010) from Microsoft
- Microsoft Research DRM talk, by Cory Doctorow
- iTunes, DRM and competition law by Reckon LLP
- Digital Rights Management at the Wayback Machine (archived 8 March 2008) from CEN/ISSS (European Committee for Standardization / Information Society Standardization System). Contains a range of possible definitions for DRM from various stakeholders. 30 September 2003
- PC Game Piracy Examined Article investigating the effects of DRM and piracy on the video game industry
- DRM.info Information about DRM by Chaos Computer Club, Defective by design, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Software Foundation Europe, and other organisations.