Term Paper on "Digital Rights Management"

Term Paper 16 pages (4601 words) Sources: 12 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

A major battle is under way over the issue of digital rights management (DRM), a technological fix imposed by major corporations to protect their software. The development of the Internet and all computer technology has altered the normal relationship between the producers and creators of music, films, and even computer software and the consumer to such a degree that the corporations that control these products have sought ways of restoring the balance in their favor. DRM is one such method of protecting copyrighted material from digital copying and transmission. Some have seen such a move as a necessity and have accepted the system that has developed, while more and more people are considering that this may not be the way to achieve the goal. The issue was made a centerpiece recently when Steve Jobs of Apple Computer called for an end to DRM in order to benefit the consumer by giving the consumer more choice and more control. This sort of move is related to the open source movement for computer software, again trying to loosen the grip of corporations and increase choice and control for the consumer. Most companies to date oppose an end to DRM, seeing this as tantamount to giving their products away for free, though companies have also agreed to alter some DRM practices when these are seen as damaging to business. In the long-term, DRM is likely doomed as a corporate control, for in any case, most DRM can be overcome or altered by the dedicated hacker, while for the average consumer, DRM may create problems in using the products consumers buy and see as theirs to do with what they will. As a result, the Digital Rights Management that is used in conjunction with today's media is not in the best interest of the consumer.

The announcement by Jobs was a major shift, with a representative of one of the larger companies involved in the dissemination of music with DRM requirements attached calling for an end to the practice. He called on the four major music producing companies to license their music to Apple without the requirement that it be protected by DRM and that Apple would then offer only DRM-free music through its iTunes store. While some producers supported the idea, or at least saw it as inevitable I time, they also noted that the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) instead called for finding ways to make existing technologies work together better than they do today (Dalrymple paras. 1-6).

DRM

Digital Rights Management refers to coders and the like that are embedded in CDs and films to prevent consumers from copying music or films and from disseminating these products over the Internet. It also refers to the way music sold online is coded so it cannot be transferred to a different computer and may not be able to be played more than a certain number of times before it degrades. DRM might be one sort of protection when it is announced so that the consumer knows what he or she is purchasing and knows the limitations being placed on the purchase. It is quite another thing when DRM is embedded secretly so that the consumer does not know about these limitations. The latter was part of the problem with certain CDs sold by Sony a few years ago, and the DRM interfered even with normal play on some computers.

DRM is defined by the Electronic Frontier Foundation as follows:

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. ("Digital Rights Management and Copy Protection Schemes" para. 1)

DRM has been backed up by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) so that circumventing DRM locks or creating the tools to do so, even for noninfringing fair uses, might be actionable. Congress has also been considering laws going even further by "mandating DRM in a wide array of digital media devices and personal computers, giving entertainment industry lawyers and federal bureaucrats veto power over new gadgets" ("Digital Rights Management and Copy Protection Schemes" para. 3). Pushing for such expansion are Hollywood and the music industry, which for some time have been attacking certain new technologies as if they were no more than ways of stealing music and films. In doing so, these industries have most often been seen as fighting their own customers, as will be seen below.

Computers digitize information into a series of 1's and 0's so that the data appears as lines of numbers. Software can change the information that is input into the system to this form, and software can then read this information and translate it back into its original form, whether that be written, auditory, or visual. Traditional analog systems translate the sound into another form and then translate it back, and there is loss in the process. Sound files may experience distortions of various types so that what emerges is an approximation and not an exact copy. Even before the widespread use of the computer, sound had been changed by the creation of the compact disc, which stores sound in digital form and plays it back with virtually no distortion. When the computer became a consumer product, users found that they could copy digital files with no loss in quality and pass them around as they wished. The Internet makes it possible to do this from a distance and indeed to share with millions of people at a time, not just with a friend across the street. Sites were created allowing for such file sharing among strangers. Record companies may not have liked the fact that the consumer could buy a recording and copy it to tape, but such copying came under the heading of "fair use" unless done for commercial purposes. Sharing tapes was limited, though, while sharing files on the Internet is not limited at all. Perfect copies indistinguishable from the originals could be widely shared using specialized sites, and this created a new problem for the recording industry and for the legal establishment.

Copyright is an intangible property right granted by federal statute and certainly applies to recorded music. Even song lyrics are separately protected by copyright (the Legal Environment of Business 284-285). Infringement occurs whenever a form of expression is copied. Fair use is an exception, referring to the fact that under certain circumstances, a person or organization can reproduce copyrighted material without paying royalties. Such an exception is found when the purpose is educational and nonprofit, and courts make these decisions on a case-by-case basis (the Legal Environment of Business 286-287).

Copyright is based on the view that "creators and owners of artistic works must be able to control their distribution and sale. Otherwise, they will have no incentive to produce them" (Kirtley 66). One of the reasons for this is financial, and this means that fair use is violated if the copier makes money from the work or if the use causes economic harm to the originator. When someone copies an article at the library, there is no economic incentive and no harm to the copyright holder. If the article is sold to others, though, there is economic harm to the copyright holder and so a violation of fair use. As one analyst writes with specific reference to the Napster case,

Fair use is an exception to that rule, but the court here found that what most of Napster's subscribers were doing wasn't fair use. Instead, the court said, "Napster users get for free something they would ordinarily have to buy." Napster "materially contributed" to this practice by providing the site and software to permit that infringement. As Circuit Judge Robert R. Beezer wrote, "Turning a blind eye to detectable acts of infringement for the sake of profit gives rise to liability." (Kirtley 66).

Thus, while the individual who copies a CD might claim fair use if the copy is for his own use, placing the copy on the Internet for millions to use changes the situation. Gardner points out some of the requirements for meeting fair use under the law:

Four factors determine what's fair: the purpose and character of the use (teaching generally passes); the nature of the copyrighted work (fiction enjoys stronger protection than nonfiction); the amount used (copying an entire work?

never a good idea); and the effect of the use on the work's potential market value (if you're taking money out of a creator's pocket, it's probably not fair use). (Gardner 19).

The first major attempt to control for this with reference to digital… READ MORE

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