Leonardo Chiariglione

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The 7 roads to iDRM

• Leonardo Chiariglione
• 5th dmin.it meeting
• Milan 2006/07/06

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The 7 roads to iDRM

• Define a national/European/global DRM standard
• Support all technologies in an implementation
• Operate a conversion box between DRM systems
• Make the specifications of all used DRM systems
  public
• Apply Alternative Compensation Systems
• Release marked content only
• Enable an open DRM platform next to freely
  deployed closed DRM systems

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1 Define a DRM standard

• Assumptions
• A national/European/global organisation defines a
  DRM standard
• Use of that standard is mandated in a
  jurisdiction
• Advantages
• Total interoperability is achieved within value
  chains and across value chains
• Problems
• What is a DRM standard (on line, interactive,
  broadcast...)
• A standard today is obsolete tomorrow..
• We no longer live in such an age... (sigh?)

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2 Support all technologies

• Assumptions
• An implementation supports all DRM technologies
  required for use in an environment
• The law may impose an obligation to allow access
  to a DRM technology if a request is made
• Advantages
• Interoperability is achieved in the target
  context
• Problems
• There is a lot of technologies already today and
  more technologies are added by the day
• The cost of the system is prohibitive as each
  technology has an attached IPR
• A given technology may be the one enabling a
  particular DRM system which the owner may not
  wish to release

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3 Operate a conversion box between DRM
systems

• Assumptions
• There are multiple companies doing the job of
  converting content/service under a given DRM A
  to a content/service under another DRM B
• User access the (on line) conversion service they
  need
• The law may impose an obligation to allow access
  to a DRM technology if a request is made
• Advantages
• A user can access the chosen content/service via
  a suitable conversion service provider
• Problems
• The user must be online
• What is the business model that works (who pays
  service provider, user, ...)
• Not all conversions are possible (from a new to
  an old system, unsupported system, ...)
• The owner of a DRM system may wish not to allow
  conversion

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4 Make all specifications of DRM systems in use
public and usable

• Assumptions
• The law establishes that all DRM specifications
  in use must be published
• The law may impose an obligation to allow access
  to a DRM technology if a request is made
• Advantages
• Anybody can implement any DRM system
• Users can buy hardware/software/services to
  access the content/service they want
• Problems
• Who is responsible for leakages
• A DRM system is an integral part of a business
  model that governs what must be open or closed

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5 Apply Alternative Compensation Systems

• Assumptions
• All contents are feely released
• All used content is counted
• All citizens in a jurisdiction pay a tax to
  access released content
• The proceedings of the tax are distributed to
  rights holders in proportion to the use of their
  content
• Advantages
• Very effective ways of giving unrestricted access
  to information and knowledge to all citizens
• Problems
• Requires setting up a state-administered DRM
  platform

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6 Release marked content only

• Assumptions
• Contents is released with the identity of the
  buyer embedded in the content
• Advantages
• Nothing changes compared with todays use of
  content
• Self-regulating system
• Buyers are restrained from putting content on a
  P2P network
• Rights holders have the task of policing their
  content
• Problems
• If implemented using watermarking the solution
  today is technically weak (and likely to remain
  so)
• If implemented using other technologies it
  requires a full-scale DRM solution
• There are privacy problems

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7- DRM platform next to closed DRM

• Assumptions
• Anybody can set up his own value chain using the
  DRM technology that best suits his business model
• All content released in a jurisdicition must
  also be made available on an iDRM platform for
  that jurisdiction
• Advantages
• Content creators can access a distribution system
  that can provide remuneration
• Intermediaries
• can plug in the platform and offer their services
• have almost no limitation to their freedom of
  enterprise
• Users can get the content they want, where they
  want, when they want, on the device they want
• Problems
• The nature of the DRM platform is still to be
  defined as there is no one size fits all in DRM
• A certification and registration infrastructure
  must be established
• Some level of legislation is required
• There must be an entity overseeing the platform