If the only pieces of technology you own for the consumption of media is a tv and a dvd player, then you probably have no reason to even consider Digital Right Management (DRM). When you want to watch a movie, you have two options, run to Wal-Mart and purchase it or go to your neighborhood video rental store and rent it. Either way, you can be pretty sure the movie that you want to view will work on the equipment you own.
Once you venture into the crazy world portable media players and computer ownership, you will suddenly be faced with the problem of DRM. We have spent our whole lives under the misconception that when we pay for something, we own that product. In most cases, that’s true until it comes to media, more specifically DVDs or songs downloaded from online music services.
These services have made promises that they can protect the media they sell from pirates. They do that by encrypting the file and giving that password only to the person who purchased it and limiting where she can play it.
For instance, Carla purchases Yellow by Coldplay from the Apple music store. Carla owns an MP3 player made by Sanyo. Carla wants to put the file she purchased on her MP3 player. Something she has every right to do, after all she purchased the music file right…not according to the music industry. The music industry claims that Carla has only licensed the file and that license doesn’t protect her right to put her music on the player of her choice. DRM is the engine that breaks the usability of the Carla’s Coldplay track.
Many people have been looking for ways to protect content without breaking it with DRM. Techcrunch just published a story about a company that is trying to do something about it. The company is called Streamburst and they have come up with an interesting way to make a file less tradable online.
When you purchase a movie from Streamburst, the first 5 seconds of the video displays your full name as shown on the front of the credit card you used to purchase the file. Streamburst also removes a specific pattern of bits from the file which does nothing to the playability, but uniquely marks that file as yours. That way if the file finds its way onto the Internet, it is possible to track it back to its source. Other than those two things, there is no DRM on the file. That means it will play anywhere.
I don’t know if this will work but I applaud the effort to find ways to protect the content without breaking. The artist deserves to be paid for his work, and I, the consumer of the content, should be able to play where, when and how I want.
May DRM DIE! Streamburst, thanks for the effort if nothing else!
google seems to think different