Sam Streeter, Alyson Lane, and Matt Menard

 A systematic approach to copyright

protection for digital media
 Prevents illegal distribution of paid content
over the internet
 Earliest usage of DRM was in 1983
You Tube Video
 DRM technology focuses on making it
impossible to steal web content in the first
place
 It is a much surer approach to catch copyright
violators opposed to the “hit or miss”
strategies used after the fact
◦ Limewire and other P2P programs use this “hit or
miss” approach
 Embedded in different media files
◦ Audio CDs
 Used mostly on promotional CDs but was a failure
◦ Movies
 License agreements were signed to exclude digital
outputs that could extract high-quality copies of the
film
◦ Internet Music
 Found most often using iTunes and Napster which
limits the amount of times a purchased song can be
transferred from the purchaser’s computer
 Four components to the DRM software:
◦ Protection toolkit: users can decide on their own access and
encryption rules
◦ Distribution toolkit: users can create interfaces for content
distribution
◦ Consumer toolkit: verifies authorization before content is
distributed
◦ Back Office component: tracks usage and licensing
 Programs such as iTunes and Napster purchase this
software
◦ iTunes program is called FairPlay
 DRM programs are made up of secrets to prevent
people from playing the music on unauthorized
systems, however, the secrets often get stolen so
companies have to constantly update them.
 DRM has prevented many college students
from illegally downloading and copying music
 Has forced students to purchase music
◦ Many students are being tracked and penalized for
their illegal downloading
 6 people have been sued for illegal
downloading/copyright infringement
◦ 4 students in 2003 and 2 students in 2005
 Bentley informed of students in Jan. 2005 but
the names were not given out
 Official subpoena was served on March 30
and the Bentley was forced to reveal names
 In 2003 over 700 students were hit with
lawsuits for illegal downloading and
copyright infringement
 The minimum penalty in a lawsuit is $750 per
work infringed
 The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of
America) is the association that finds and
prosecutes illegal downloaders
 "We must continue to let individuals know that
they bear responsibility for illegally stealing the
work of those who make the music. In a world
that is becoming more and more connected
through the wonders of digital technology,
students need to understand that just because
someone else's property or creations can be
obtained easily and freely without anyone
seemingly knowing, there are consequences
because it is stealing.“
-RIAA General Counsel Steven Marks
 DRM free
 Can be played on all players, including the
iPod
 Trying to compete with iTunes who controls
85% of the market
 One song sells for 99 cents
 Forced iTunes to drop their price to 99 cents
as well
 Has provoked thoughts that fewer restrictions
on music will actually encourage people to
buy more music, not less
 Apple CEO Steve Jobs has made a call for the end of DRM. Jobs
says Apple would sell only DRM-free music on iTunes if it could.
 Only 22 songs are purchased from iTunes for every iPod sold.
 The reason they can’t make their music DRM-free is because of
the agreements made with the big four music companies.
 90% of music is sold on CD’s which have no DRM software and
can be copied and shared any number of times, sparking the
question of what are the benefits of making only 10% of their
music DRM encoded.
 Legislators have told Apple that it has to make iTunes compatible
with competitors because it dominates the digital music market.
 Norway went to the extent of declaring the iPod illegal because
forces users into buying music only from iTunes.
 However, until the big four companies agree to let Apple sell
their music DRM-free, there is nothing that Apple can do to
satisfy countries such as Norway.
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