New Technologies Labled “Digital Rights Management” On the Hunt For Piraters of Media Content.

Digital Rights Management, also called “DRM”, is a general term used to describe technologies used by copyright holders of media to prevent the onslaught of piracy. These new technologies came about with the creation of CD’s, which were disks that were easily “ripable” onto computers and sharing sites. Full songs and albums were copied onto people’s personal computers and then were allowed to share them with unlimited amounts of people. They are able to share this media through client/server websites such as Limewire and Peer-to-peer(P2P) sites. These sites have cause illegal downloads of media to skyrocket in the past few years and which as effectively caused the creators of the content to try to prevent the spread of their work legally.

    DRM works to change the ownership of the content from people to computer software of the copyright holders. People are allowed to own the media but with restrictions. DRM creates a model that creates obligations, rights and restrictions of the media content. You have to pay for the right to own the content but are restricted to a certain amount of downloads, uses or sharing options. Companies that use this restricted content are owners of ebooks, movies and music. DRM limits copies that can be made of the media or can restrict copies being made period. It also limits multiple downloads and confuses ripping software and other piracy software used to copy the material and distribute it online. Companies can also use encrypted files for subscription services too. You can pay for unlimited listens but are unlimited to downloads which are only available to one user profile or computer based on their identification number. 

    Digital Rights Management will change the landscape of downloading media content and will negatively change my experience. I am a user who uses P2P services to find new music and artists that I would otherwise never discover because the music industries hold on which music is presented to the masses. I buy the music in which I am emotionally attached to from gaining a taste of their music. Now, I’ll be unable to reach materials and in-tern buy less music in the long run.  An article on DefectiveByDesign.org continues the topic and introduces the argument that DRM “is creating a dangerous situation for freedom, privacy and censorship.” Recently it has become impossible to find new music online through downloads because of this technology and I have only bought content of older artists I have come to love from downloading past releases of their music. Only time will tell if DRM will help these copyright holders or inadvertently hurt themselves.