Digital Rights Management

           I have written numerous blog about anti-piracy and ways to prevent it.  Digital Rights Management is not a new technology.  This technology has been around since about 1996 and was introduced to protect copyright holders.

According to the American Library Association “Digital Rights Management technology is to control access to, track and limit uses of digital works. These controls are normally imbedded in the work and accompany it when it is distributed to the consumer. DRM systems are intended to operate after a user has obtained access to the work.”

How is Digital Rights Management (DRM) software used in the music industry?  The software is embedded in the music file; it could prevent it from being copied numerous times; how you listen to the music file, and what type of playback device you can use.  In essence the record label is making the determination on how much usage you will get for that particular song.

Since the development of DRM technology several controversies involving the technology have come about.  The consumer was starting to wonder how far would the copyright holder go to protect their works.  Song BMG released several CD’s that contain software that track user’s activity and the limitation of how many copies of the CD you could make. In the end Sony BMG settled the class action lawsuits.

The big four record labels have decided since then to stop placing DRM access controls on their music.  They stated that it was not worth the cost.  However this has not stopped the online music website such as Apple, Napster, Microsoft, Amazon and Wal-Mart from employing different types of DRM to restrict usage and downloads.

According to an article wrote by Layton, Julia “The answer comes down to copyright. The digital revolution that has empowered consumers to use digital content in new and innovative ways has also made it nearly impossible for copyright holders to control the distribution of their property. It's not just music, but film, video games and any other media that can be digitized and passed around.”

So in 1998 the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was signed into law and amended the United States Copyright Act.  This law would protect the copyright holder against copyright infringement.  It made it a criminal act to circumvent the access control of the media.

The beauty of music is the creation of where it comes from, so be unique and different!

Sing, write, compose and produce from your heart!