Digital Rights Management

1
Digital Rights Management

• CSE 601
• Andrew Hertlein
• May 6, 2008

2
What is DRM?

• Digital Rights Management is a term referring to
  the technologies controlling access to digital
  media

3
Why use DRM tecnology?

• Proliferation of digital media and high speed
  internet has led to a large amount of piracy
• DRM attempted to protect intellectual property

4
DVD sale of recent movies

• Spiderman 3 120 million
• The Departed 150 million
• Harry Potter 216 million

5
Estimates of loss due to Piracy

• 20.5 Billion in revenue
• 140,000 lost jobs in the U.S.
• 800 million in lost taxes

6
iTunes FairPlay

• Allows the consumer to use the media on up to 5
  computers simultaneously
• The media can be copied to an unlimited number of
  iPods
• The consumer cannot use the media on any player
  besides an iPod

7
Sony Rootkit DRM

• A notorious authentication software
• Installed onto the computer without the consumers
  authorization
• Used techniques commonly employed spyware

8
MSN music service

• On August 31, 2008, Microsoft will stop
  authorizing the music sold through MSN music
  service
• After this date consumers will not be able to
  authenticate the music on anything but the
  current computer it is on

9
How DRM technology fails

• Is sometimes used to simply to foster the growth
  of proprietary devices
• Example iTunes FairPlay music will not play on
  anything other than iPods

10
How DRM technology fails

• It restricts media usage of legal purchasers
• Can actually lead people to pirate media to avoid
  these restrictions

11
How DRM technology fails

• It does not stop piracy!

12
Steve Jobs Thoughts on Music
13
What is the solution?

• Enforcement is difficult
• The amount of pirating is large, and arrests are
  usually only made in extreme cases
• Most of pirating occurs overseas, outside US
  authority

14
What is the solution?

• Blu-Rays new copy protection was thought to last
  as long as ten years it was cracked ten months
  after its release
• The recent move to HD media may help slow down
  piracy as the files take much longer to move