Martin. rowling. kipling. marks. tolkien. sebold. scott fitzgerald. hosseini. collins. martel.
digitized
Digital rights management, also referred to as DRM, is a software or a ‘wrapper’ that surrounds all digital content. It provides a connection between the content and it’s owner, identifying their ‘intellectual property’. In short, the music, film, book you think you just bought still doesn’t belong to you. It’s never going to be yours, so you better just get used to it.
DRM has the ability to ‘track usage’ of the content (Clark, G. Phillips, A. 2008) so that the owner (author, artist etc.) can see what you’re doing with ‘their property’ and control how you use it. This is intended to protect content and property FOR the owners, a form of copyright that stands up against piracy. But does this software take it a little too far? Even if we pop down to the shop to grab the latest JT album so we have it in tangible form - it’s in your hands (!!!) - you still don’t own it. They’ve just set a limit on the CD which controls how many times you can burn it. So does it work? There have been a lot of theories thrown around about the viability of DRM, whether it actually works or if it’s just a waste of time for everyone involved. Frania Hall states in her book The business of digital publishing that there is ‘no compelling evidence’ to say that it ‘prevents copyright theft in any major way’. She actually goes on to suggest that it even ‘hinders legitimate users’, stopping them from gaining access to the content that they have previously bought. But Hall only says ‘in any major way’. Her use of ‘major’ makes me wonder what use DRM is doing in a MINOR way. What would happen if we got rid of DRM altogether? Well actually, if i’m honest, I don’t think it would be a whole lot different. Already there are independent publishers who are ditching DRM in favour of trusting their valued paying customers. Smashwords an ‘indie ebook distributer’ claim that DRM ‘treats lawful customers like criminals’. They don’t seem to have come up against any problems so far, and they aren’t the only ones; Closed Circle Press and BeWrite Books are also following these strategies. On the other hand, for the budding author, DRM could be a bit of a godsend. Foster speaks of a recording artist who wanted to self-distribute her work — ‘DRM [empowered] her to sell recordings’ without CD distribution companies. This in turn ‘diminishes the power of the record company and facilitates a free market’ (Foster, E. 2006). If this technology has enabled this artist to self-distribute, why can’t it work the same for authors in the publishing industry? Maybe this is technologies next gift to self-publishing authors. This doesn’t mean anything good for the publisher though. If this software begins to encourage authors to bypass them altogether, they are at an even higher risk of having to close Watermarking is an alternative option to go about protecting your work from an authors point of view as it places trust and honesty with the consumer. I guess all we have to do now is wait for the consumer to step up — and be honest. Word Count: 535 Bibliography Clark, G., Phillips, A. (2008). Inside book publishing. 4th ed. Abingdon: Routledge. Clockw0rk. (2013). How a company can ‘catch’ you for pirating. Available at: http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/15u5sl/eli5_how_a_company_can_catch_you_for_pirating/ [Accessed on 21st October 2014]. Foster, E. (2006). In defense of DRM. Available from: http://www.infoworld.com/article/2641666/techology-business/in-defense-of-drm.html. [Accessed 25th November 2014]. Gill, P. (2014). What Is 'DRM'? Why Is DRM So Controversial with Music and Movie Artists?. Available at: http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/d/f/What-Is-DRM-Digital-Rights-Management.htm [Accessed on 21st October 2014]. Hall, F. (2013). The business of digital publishing. Abingdon: Routledge. Mesentsev, L.Y. (2011). DRM. Available at: http://macbookreader.com/wp/drm/ [Accessed 21st October 2014]. Patokallio, J. (2012). Why e-books will soon be obsolete (and no, it’s not just because of DRM). Gyrovague. Available at: http://gyrovague.com/2012/04/30/why-e-books-will-soon-be-obsolete-and-no-its-not-just-because-of-drm/ [Accessed on 21st October 2014]. Solon, O. (2011). JK Rowling reignites DRM debate. Olivia Solon’s Blog. Available at: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-06/23/harry-potter-e-books-drm [Accessed on 21st October 2014].
1 Comment
Nicola Timbrell
10/22/2014 06:12:49 am
I like the way you start with a definition of DRM. You start from a strong stance writing from the consumer’s point of view but what about the publisher’s point of view or even the author’s? Leave a Reply. |