It's been a few years since entertainment industry moguls first set the alarm bells ringing. Increasing digitalisation and the Internet enable consumers to easily (and illegally) circulate copyrighted materials, while peer-to-peer sites like Napster and KaZaa quickly became extremely popular. The result was the significant erosion of income for the music and film industries, whose response was to create Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems that prevent the illegal use and distribution of digital content. Acceptance of DRM by honest consumers is limited, it tests their loyalty and makes the future of DRM an uncertain one.
Out of the box
Providers must be open to innovation when it comes to offering and distributing content. Existing business models will have to be rethought rather than duplicated into online versions. "Content providers will have to tailor their business models, and how they apply DRM, to meet consumers' needs," says René van Buuren, DRM expert at the Telematica Institute. "There are already sites that allow members to download music or images at set times, such as those operated by providers of specific music genres. It's also feasible to make the contents of a music CD available for download when the CD is released." Clearly, if content providers want to stay profitable, they'll need to start thinking out of the box.
DRM technologies should not become so complex that they form a threshold for users. The challenge is to develop DRM systems that consumers can use intuitively. True, it's possible to use the latest encryption and decryption technologies, but these are far from user-friendly. Most limit the user to using the content on one or a limited number of devices - usually the PC on which it was downloaded. Seeing that the user has bought the rights, future DRM systems must allow consumers to play the content anywhere, without restricting their freedom.
Perfect world
An exacerbating factor is that interoperability between DRM systems like iTunes, Windows DRM, Helix DRM by Real is still poor. An iTunes song, for example, cannot be played on a Windows player and you need different technology for downloading and playing films. In a perfect world this would all take place on one DRM platform, but the user is expected to deal with several different technologies and do too much fine-tuning. If DRM is to become accepted, the industry will have to take note.
Digital Restrictions Management
The user - or content consumer - must appreciate the added value of a DRM system. Content providers initially reacted to the illegal distribution of their assets by frenetically protecting this content with DRM to safeguard its value. Users rebelled, seeing DRM -widely lampooned as meaning Digital Restrictions Management - as a way of restricting their options. Content providers, having realised that users are prepared to pay for content if it isn't bridled with unnecessary restrictions, have now taken notice and are now looking for ways to offer users more. Van Buuren refers to a functionality that makes it possible to sell on or lend content to others after buying it, or the possibility of playing it anywhere, on any device. He feels that content providers should make sure that honest users aren't restricted by complex procedures.
Blame it on the bandwidth
In terms of the development of new DRM initiatives and new business models, the music industry seems to be leading the way. They were the first to be confronted with the effects of the illegal distribution of their content, partly because of the growth in broadband connections. The more conservative film industry was able to hold on longer to its existing business models, which Van Buuren attributes to the fact that users need much more bandwidth to assault its distribution model. Downloading a 4 MB song poses few problems for most households nowadays, but a complete film of 1 GB is a different matter. As bandwidth increases, Van Buuren expects the film industry to quickly create a profitable business model by offering DRM-protected online content that will meet users' needs.
Long term viability
Current DRM systems are far from perfect, but their builders have invested significantly in R&D these past few years and they'd like to see some returns during the next few. This is why Van Buuren doesn't expect DRM in its current guise to have disappeared ten years down the road. "The question is more about its viability in the long term. At the Telematica Institute we believe that control and responsibility should be given back to the user. This means ditching DRM's current restrictive nature and moving towards a motto of: 'Keep the honest people honest'."
Van Buuren is convinced that content usage rights will increasingly be bundled with other services, like being able to receive films as part of your mobile phone subscription. Old business models will have to be replaced by service bundles, and DRM could support such a shift.
Vulnerable
Every security or DRM system can be cracked - as Sony and Microsoft learned to their cost earlier this year. Sony's DRM software was susceptible to malicious viruses and Microsoft had to repair a leak in its DRM application. However, the security bar has now been raised so high that hackers must be asking themselves whether their efforts are worth the rewards. Most DRM systems work on the principle that the content and its corresponding licence are linked via a content encryption (or decryption) key. Encryption methodologies are based on mathematical techniques, algorithms and keys, which makes them rather vulnerable because, as Van Buuren explains, the mathematical part can be cracked via so-called brute force attacks. "With enough calculations you can simply crack the code." The solution to the problem isn't to throw more technology at it, it's the right combination of technology and service that will get the honest buyer buying content again.
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