DRM still relevant in Web 2.0 era
Despites its unpopular reputation, digital rights management (DRM) remains
relevant in today's digital age with the advent of cloud, social media and
user-generated content, analysts say. And businesses need to figure out new
ways of managing content access and protection that will not negatively
impact consumers.
Adrian Drury, principal analyst at Ovum, defined DRM as the process of
managing, settling, protecting and securing access to digital content,
whether file-based content or a cached stream.
DRM came into existence as an access control technology to attribute
conditional access permissions to digital data, subject to the terms defined
by the rights owner, Drury explained in an e-mail.
Benjamin Cavender, associate principal at China Market Research Group (CMR),
noted that as a content management system, DRM determines how content is
used and who can use it. For instance, it can dictate the number of devices
an audio file can be copied to, or what hardware a digital book can be
viewed on, he said.
Mike McGuire, research vice president of media at Gartner, said: "[DRM] has
acquired a bad reputation [because] rights-holders and media companies [had]
an unsustainable and unachievable set of requirements in their business and
usage rules which they were asking the DRM technology to enforce."
DRM made headlines in 2005 when record company Sony BMG released music
compact discs (CDs) embedded with its own DRM tool that limited the number
of copies users could replicate from the CD. It also barred users from
creating unprotected MP3 files. The DRM program would automatically install
a rootkit in the computer once the CD is played, creating vulnerabilities in
the PC that would allow other malware to hide and operate undetected.
Ovum's Drury said: "DRM was misunderstood in the consumer press, poorly
covered by the industry press and vilified by the open source community.
DRM, inevitably, involves a tradeoff between consumer, retailer and rights
owner [where] an optimal outcome [will] mean all parties are moderately
unhappy with the result."
DRM still relevant
Ariel Avitan, consulting analyst for network security technologies at Frost
& Sullivan, noted that DRM will only become more relevant as society moves
toward a fully digitalized marketplace.
With the rise of Web 2.0, user-generated content and social media, there
will be an increased need for user-centric applications and monitoring that
still give the liberty to consumers but also protect digital assets from
misuse, Avitan explained.
Drury added that DRM remains relevant today because digital content security
is more vital in the Web 2.0 age.
He reasoned that premium content distribution has been moving away from
established broadcast networks, which already have mature conditional access
technologies, where the consumer's only opportunity to control an instance
of the content was the videocassette recorder (VCR). Nowadays, content
distribution is increasingly done over Internet Protocol-based networks and
pushed out to multiple devices, he pointed out.
The Ovum analyst added that as cloud-based services that are accessible via
multiscreen media continue to develop, DRM technologies will continue to be
a critical foundation for these technologies. He cited the example of
Google's Content ID technologyfor YouTube which allows copyright owners to
identify and manage their content on the site.
CMR's Cavender, however, said it is difficult to make a case for DMR's
relevancy given the amount of content available in the cloud and the amount
of user-generated content being developed. He pointed to how Netizens in
China can listen to pretty much any music they want for free via Web sites
such as Baidu, and watch popular TV shows nearly as fast as such content go
live via sites such as Tudou and Youku.
Cavender noted that while DRM is not necessarily on its way out, in
practical terms, it is "extremely difficult" to work effectively in China
because there are too many sources of unprotected content available to
consumers.
Furthermore, DRM also introduces other complications because it restricts a
buyer of legitimate goods more than someone who pirates it, he added.
Managing, enforcing DRM
And even if DRM is implemented, ensuring its compliance will prove daunting.
According to Drury, the enforcement and management of DRM is not as much the
issue as is controlling the economic incentive to piracy and the use of
pirate services. That, he said, is the real challenge for the businesses
such as the entertainment industry.
Drury said: "DRM technologies, by definition, are always breakable and there
will always be a rebellious portion of the market that will seek to crack
the latest technology.
"The real goal should be providing highly convenient, well-priced services
so piracy becomes a minority sport," he said.
Cavender noted that DRM's role of "locking down content accessibility is
ultimately going to fail".
He added that if companies want to successfully manage access control, they
will have to try another tack such as creating easy-to-use platforms for
consuming content.
"Consumers can come to terms with the right-restricted media, but only if it
is as easy to use as the pirated version," he said.
McGuire also noted that many media companies and copyright holders are
realizing that lockdown DRM approaches need to give way to more flexible
models, which Gartner refers to as digital experience management (DEM) such
as cloud-based subscription services.
Drury also pointed to MOG All Access as a DRM alternative. MOG, which
licenses content directly from copyright owners, offers a subscription-based
streaming music service at US$5 a month which gives users unlimited
on-demand streams of over 6 million songs.
By Jamie Yap, ZDNet Asia on October 25, 2010
http://www.zdnetasia.com/drm-still-relevant-in-web-2-0-era-62203975.htm
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