Digital rights management tools or technological protection measures are a set of access control technologies for restricting the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. DRM technologies have been criticized for restricting individuals from copying or using the content legally, such as by fair use. Proponents of DRM argue that it is necessary to prevent intellectual property from being copied freely, and that it can help the copyright holder maintain artistic control.
About Digital rights management in brief
Digital rights management tools or technological protection measures are a set of access control technologies for restricting the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. DRM technologies have been criticized for restricting individuals from copying or using the content legally, such as by fair use. Proponents of DRM argue that it is necessary to prevent intellectual property from being copied freely, and that it can help the copyright holder maintain artistic control. Those opposed to DRM contend there is no evidence that DRM helps prevent copyright infringement, arguing instead that it serves only to inconvenience legitimate customers and helps big business stifle innovation and competition. The rise of digital media and analog-to-digital conversion technologies has vastly increased the concerns of copyright-owning individuals and organizations, particularly within the music and movie industries. While analog media inevitably lose quality with each copy generation, digital media files may be duplicated an unlimited number of times with no degradation in the quality. Some DRM systems limit the number of installations with which a user can activate on different computers by requiring online authentication with an online server. In modern practice, product keys are typically combined with other DRM practices as the software could be cracked without a cracked software without a key or without a program to run without cracking the software. For instance, tractor companies try to prevent farmers from making DIY repairs under the usage of DRM-laws such as DMCA. The use of digital rights management is not universally accepted. The underlying principle of the SSS and subsequently of superdistribution was that the distribution of encrypted digital products should be completely unrestricted and that users of those products would not just be permitted to redistribute them but would actually be encouraged to do so.
In 1983, a very early implementation of Digital Rights Management was the Software Service System (SSS) devised by the Japanese engineer Ryuichi Moriya. The SSS was based on encryption, with specialized hardware that controlled decryption and also enabled payments to be sent to the copyright holders. For example, when the game would pause and prompt the player to look up a certain page in a booklet or manual that the player lacked access to such material, they would not be able to continue. A product key, a typically alphanumerical serial number used to represent a license to a particular piece of software, served a similar function for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Game keys can be accepted by the user if the key is accepted, then the user who bought the game can continue to use the game, if the player correctly inputs a valid key, and so on. The game key can be used to activate different systems with different installations with different servers, and this can limit the user’s ability to activate the player’s access to the game. In the U.S., Apple dropped DRM from all iTunes music files around 2009, but it has since been expanded to more traditional hardware products such as Keurig’s coffeemakers, Philips’ light bulbs, mobile device power chargers, and John Deere’s tractors. In Europe, many laws have been created which criminalize the circumvention of DRM, including the EU’s Information Society Directive.
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This page is based on the article Digital rights management published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
