DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT: gaining real value from implementation

This report takes a look at digital rights management (DRM) technologies now that the hype generated between 1999 and 2001 has settled. DRM is now emerging again in some niche content markets, and this report takes a look at where DRM is now, what types of solutions are commercially available, how DRM can benefit publishers outside of niche markets such as the music industry, and considers where DRM will go in the future. Additionally, the report provides up-to-date figures on the DRM market and copyright abuse.

Introduction

• DRM (digital rights management) is the process of protecting digital media content and controlling its use through rights

• From 1999 to 2001 DRM went through a hype period. However, with the bursting of the dot-com bubble, the main dedicated DRM software vendors went under or reinvented themselves

• Companies such as Sony, Philips and Time Warner are now making major investments in DRM, re-fuelling interest in the technology

• According to the E-Commerce Times in 2003, analysts are predicting that the market for DRM will grow slowly over the next few years. The technology needs to mature and IT budgets loosen before significant development are witnessed.

• In October 2003, Forrester found that digital rights management technology for use with business content will go the same route as collaboration technology ? it will become part of the infrastructure and will cease to exist as an independent market.

What?s available now?

• Commercially available DRM solutions are usually browser-based

• Adobe Content Server is the main DRM application in the e-book market for desktop PCs

• Windows concentrates on three markets for its DRM initiatives: e-books; audio and video, corporate platforms

• One benefit of Microsoft DRM is that it has the most configurable system of commercially available products because it supports almost infinite combinations of configurations and settings

• CD copy-protection is very controversial, and is used more in Europe than in the US. Copy protection solutions have sometimes meant that users have been unable to play legitimately purchased CDs on some devices.

Case Study: The British Library

• Approximately four years ago it emerged that the British Library would need to encrypt files in order to secure rights from publishers for electronic document delivery

• A survey of the market resulted in the choice of the Adobe Content Server and Adobe eBook

  Reader

• The secure electronic delivery service with over 100 million journal articles available at the British Library was fully launched at Online in London, in December 2003

Case Study: ECCH

• ECCH acts as an aggregator and distributor of business and management case studies written by partner business schools and authors around the world

• ECCH found the BSG solution in mid-2001. It also spoke to other DRM providers, such as Sealed Media, but they were looking for a solution which was both flexible and cost-effective (as ECCH is a non-profit organisation), and the BSG solution was found to be the most suitable

• ECCH uses DRM across all of its content, but in two different ways: to send an encrypted master file to a business school which then provides its students with print-outs, or to enable online access to course materials by students.

DRM benefits to content providers

• Many publishers are currently uncomfortable with digital delivery because of piracy concerns. Thus far, however, many publishers have not experimented with DRM

• DRM should be seen ultimately less as a copyright infringement protection tool (all DRM solutions are hackable), but as a facilitator of new business models, and this is where the true value lies for content publishers

• DRM systems allow publishers to track who is accessing a piece of content and how often. This can provide useful data which c