Digital rights management seems to be faulty at protecting copyrighted material as digital piracy continues to rise and users push for DRM free content.
The Digital Rights Management, or DRM, is an attempt at restricting access of copyrighted material. DRM removes usage control after the user purchases the content, through security codes and various technological restrictions. DRM is used to restrict the user from copying, sharing and printing content. This content includes movies, video games, software, music, eBooks and much more.
While DRM does take the initiative to protect the copyrighted material for the content producer, it is possible that it may cause adverse effects on the users. It creates tension between the producer and consumer. Some may even argue that it give studios the right to treat consumers as criminals. Generally, DRM protected files cannot be transferred between devices and usually requires a specialized player; creating a grave inconvenience to a paying customer.
Not only does DRM create an incentive for people to break the rules, it also is incredibly common for it to be hacked. One man even created a lego contraption to hack into Kindle eBook security. Pirated content, like movies or shows, almost never require navigation through DRM in order to view it. There are now special players and software that accommodate for pirated content and provide no play-back errors.
A study by the US TV network NBC Universal "estimates that in January 432 million people accessed copyright infringing material and in the process of doing so consumed a rather substantial 9,567 petabytes of data." This means that almost a quarter of all internet traffic is attributed to digital piracy. Clearly there are loop holes in digital rights management that have yet to be addressed.
Despite these loop holes, industries are still increasing the security and DRM on certain content. The creator of the world wide web and director of the web standards body W3C, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has publicly supported measures to embed digital rights management in HTML5. Him and others like him have proposed to add encrypted media extensions that would provide a hook for DRM-protected content within the new HTML code. Their overall goal is to cut the means of piracy and by doing this, they wish to avoid content being completely removed from the internet by its creators because it is too often being pirated.
Not surprisingly, there has been much disapproval from media users. Some argue that it is another way for the media industry to try and control its users. It shows who is really in charge of your web experience. Many believe that the internet is a place for sharing not for restrictions.
The controversy over DRM is still very prevalent today as more and more copyrighted content is continuously being produced. Should these companies continue to lace their products in security codes or will piracy always find a loop hole?
Juliana structures her post well with an explanatory headline. It specifically says how DRM is faulty with its protection of copyrights, and as a result, piracy continues to increase. She addressed the overall topic and what she discovered from it. The pictures are successfully embedded throughout the text and there is a good mix between her main points and links. The link to the US TV network NBC Universal study is a great link that established credibility and also gives statistics on how many people access copyright infringing material. Her main points are that DRM creates tension between the producer and consumer, it is common to be hacked, and despite loopholes and disapproval from users, industries still increase security. All of the points are very effective because not only does she list the problems with DRM, but she also gives an example of the opposing side of what Sir Tim Berners-Lee is doing to embed DRM into HTMLs.
ReplyDeleteSince she states that 432 million people accessed copyright infringing material in January, I would add to this statistics of what the most copyrighted material are. This would give readers a sense of what is being pirated the most. For example, how movies and pornography have almost the same percentage of being the most pirated items on the web being around 35%.
http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/online-piracy/
Juliana's headline is explanatory and well written. The rest of her post is extremely well written and explanatory also. Reading through it, she answered a lot of questions that one might have about DRM. After the definition of DRM she gives good examples and sites sources to support her examples. Her pictures however, aren't very explanatory, they're more just decorative.
ReplyDeleteOne of her main points was that there is tension between the consumer and producer because of DRM. A paying consumer is becoming frustrated with DRM and no longer wants to spend money if it is going to be an inconvenience for them. Another point is that DRM gives people an incentive to break the rules and it is very common to be hacked. If DRM is supposed to stop the hacking, then how can it possibly working if it is hackable itself?
One thing that I would add is a little more about piracy. Maybe define piracy in a specific sense and talk about piracy examples like iTunes and the way DRM affected them and how they over came that obstacle. http://gigaom.com/2013/09/04/apples-drm-on-itunes-was-not-an-illegal-monopoly-court-confirms-2/ There should be some statistics about piracy. The music business has increased digital revenues by 1,000% from 2004 to 2010 but piracy has been a major factor behind the overall global market decline of around 31 percent in the same period.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/drm_1998_present_brief_history_copy_protection