Digital Rights Management (DRM)

MP3 files can be traded very easily, creating a vast inventory of 'free' music. The music industry is strongly opposed to unrestricted MP3 distribution, of course, because of fears of lost revenue, and has sanctioned a form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) to protect their interests.

In the days before the CD, it was possible to copy records to tape but each subsequent generation would cause the audio signal to be degraded. Record companies weren't overly concerned about losing revenue to this type of copying, because they felt that consumers would not accept the inferior quality of copies.

Digital media changed all that - exact copies can be made any number of times without degradation. Digital media is also much easier to distribute worldwide via Internet.

As soon as Internet MP3 trading became widespread the music industry clamped down hard. They filed lawsuits against music distribution services like Napster and Kazaa and succeeded in prosecuting individuals who were caught exchanging MP3s.

The music industry wanted a system to prevent consumers from freely copying and trading music. Several types of Digital Rights Management have been developed and at the present time, every online music store that operates in the United States uses some form of DRM. 

Consumers who buy songs from Internet music stores usually receive them in either WMA or AAC format. AAC is used for the Apple iPod, while WMA is used for most other types of MP3 players. DRM can be integrated into both of these formats.

A typical DRM scheme limits the number of times a song can be copied or burnt to CD. There may also be limits to how the songs are used on private networks - AAC songs can only be heard on five computers at one time.

Napster uses another approach - users can download and listen to any number of songs for a monthly fee, but those songs cannot be burnt to CD unless the user pays an extra fee. If a payment is missed, all of the songs on the computer are rendered inoperable.

Is Digital Rights Management good?

Many view DRM as unnecessarily restrictive. After all, if you buy a CD from a music store, you have the right to copy that CD, rip it to your computer and sell the original copy.

If you buy a song from an Internet music store you do not have any of those rights. What's more, the online vendor can change the terms of sale at any time after the purchase.

We have already seen this with Apple - they changed the CD burning rights from ten copies to seven, applied retroactively.

In effect, the music that you 'buy' from an online music store is not yours. Your right to use it can be taken away at any time because of a change in policy or because you missed a monthly payment.

And in spite of the supposed 'protection' that digital rights management offers to copyright holders, it can easily be circumvented.

DRM songs which are burned to CDs have no restrictions - the CD can be used however the user wishes, including copying, ripping and converting to (non-restricted) MP3!

So digital rights mangement is restrictive, unfair and ineffective. It punishes consumers who are willing to play by the rules and does not prevent the illegal distribution of MP3s.

Perhaps this 'punishment' is enough to drive consumers to find other (free) sources for music. If this is the case, the music industry has shot itself in the foot.