What Every Citizen Should Know About DRM, aka - Public Knowledge

I. A Brief Introduction To DRM and itsRelationship to Copyright LawComputers and computer networks, as well asother digital tools, have made the problem evenmore acute. Computer companies and softwarevendors discovered an aspect of this problem in thelate 1970s and early 1980s, because the softwarethat ran on personal computers is inherently copyable.Their experience led to the first efforts atDRM, then known only as “copy protection.” 5Many of us are aware how it is so inexpensive tomake computerized copies of digital creative worksthat the cost probably is too small to be measured.What is less well-recognized (but just as true) isthat other digital tools make it possible to take analogworks (original paintings, say, or printed books)and digitize them and distribute the perfect copies— sometimes as part of an illicit “copyright piracy”enterprise, for commercial gain, and sometimesjust for free. 6 In effect, digital tools make the copyingof any content, regardless of its form, far easierthan it used to be.The Ways of Adapting toCheap CopyingSo the problem, at least as many artists, authors,and publishers see it, is how to make copying ofcreative works more difficult or at least more controllable.Putting the breaks on easy copying makesit less necessary to revise the whole system of lawwe’ve built around the notion of “copyright.” 7For those who want to make copying difficult,as it once was, the digital revolution has beenboth a curse and a blessing. On the one hand,when a work is in digital form, it can easily becopied by digital mechanisms such as the “copy”functions in computer operating systems. Butwhen the work is in digital form, it turns out,there are also a number of technological optionsthat can be employed to limit one’s ability to copyall or part of a work. When Stephen King publisheda novella in 2000 called “Riding the Bullet”and sold it (through his publishers) over theAnalog Versus DigitalIt’s important to understand at this point the fundamentaldifferences between digital technologies andanalog technologies. “Digital” generally refers to representationof information, including content, asones and zeros (or “bits”). There are a number ofadvantages to the use of digital technologies — themajor one is that it is possible for the receiver of digitalcontent to determine whether there has been anerror in transmission, and to correct the error (byseeking retransmission of the altered or lost bits).This is why the word “digital” has a certain appealfor both consumers and vendors — the word connotesquality, because it suggests (not always accurately)that the content has been perfectly copied ortransmitted for consumer use. Moreover, the fact thatit can be subjected to such error-checking is whatmakes it possible for the content to be subjected todigital encryption and decryption techniques.For most of the history of consumer electronics,however, analog technologies, which directly reproducethe waveforms of auditory and visual informationbut do not translate them to “bits,” have beenat the heart of home-entertainment systems. Evenwhere digital technologies and content formatshave become commonplace (as music CDs andmovie DVDs are), they are most commonly used onsystems with analog components (such as stereosystems that use analog connectors to connect CDplayers to speakers). Similarly, in the United States,most TV watchers view television content throughanalog TV displays, even when the actual signal carryingthat content (a cable or satellite signal, forexample) may have been digital when it first arrivedin the home.4