Digital Rights Management (DRM) are techniques used to control the use of intellectual property in digital formats controlling unauthorized redistribution and restricting the ways consumers can copy content that they have purchased. 2 These controls started with copy preventative measures on software that was sold in diskette form. 1 Over the years DRM has improved to cover intellectual property such as movies, music and books. DRM is important to intellectual property owners. Without these improvements owners were reluctant about moving forward with sharing these items digitally. There is some controversy involved in the use of DRM as the techniques restrict some legitimate uses.

DRMs that are now being utilized may restrict the ereader you use to read a book, prevent you from copying a DVD or Blue-Ray to your portable device or dictate which applications are available for your specific smart phone. 3 Corporations claim that these DRMs not only protect their intellectual property but also protect the consumer from viruses, malware and adware. Many consumers feel that these restrictions should not be in place, or should be less restrictive so that consumers can have some freedom over their personal use once they have paid a fair market price for digital property.

Intellectual property needs to be protected. Owners are rightfully concerned about unlawful copying and distribution, without compensation, of their works. As techniques and technologies improve and increase to protect intellectual property virtually all copy-protection schemes are cracked. 1 Piracy continues to be a lucrative market both here in the United States and overseas where digital rights protections and enforcements are much more lax. Still, many executives feel as if DRM is useless in the protection of music and movie property. Some have gone as far as offering their propertied without DRM protections in an attempt to see what the future holds when offering legitimate consumers the freedom of use intellectual purchases as they please.

The right to use intellectual property legitimately is very important to consumers. DRM is preventing, in some cases, legitimate uses such as backup copies of CDs and research... 1 This is great concern for libraries as digital lending becomes popular. A proposed first step would be: * Eliminating the “First sale” doctrine by limiting the secondary transfer of works to others. First sale has been for centuries a bedrock principle governing the balance of rights between consumers and sellers of information products. It is first sale that allows people to share a favorite book or CD with a friend and that creates secondary markets for works. It is first sale that allows libraries to loan lawfully acquired works to the public. * Enforcing a “Pay-per-use” model of information dissemination that, if it becomes the dominant or even sole mode of access, will be contrary to the public purposes of copyright law. It should not be the business of government to favor or enforce any particular business model in the information marketplace, particularly one that raises major issues of equity and potentially severe economic consequences for public institutions. * Enforcing time limits or other limitations of use that prevent preservation and archiving. Many market models of DRM distribution systems envision content that essentially disappears after a specific period of time or number of uses. DRM technologies can also prevent copying content into new formats. Such controls will prevent libraries, historical archives, museums, research institutions, and other cultural institutions from preserving and providing long-term access to the knowledge products of our society. From the days of the Great Library of Alexandria, society has turned to such institutions to preserve its cultural heritage and provide access to it. There is no evidence that alternative organizations currently exist or will form to play that role in the digital pay-per-use world. * Eliminating “fair use” and other exceptions in Copyright Law that underpin education, criticism, and scholarship. DRM technology can prevent normal uses of works protected by copyright law, such as printing or excising portions for quotation. For libraries and schools to serve their educational, research, and information roles, the public must be able to use works in the full range of ways envisioned by the Copyright Act in its limitations and exceptions.4

DRM changes the fundamental relationship between the creators, publishers and users to the detriment of creators, users and the institutions that serve them. DRM technologies should be utilized but some adjustments may be necessary to take into consideration legitimate consumer uses.

1. Sara Baase, A Gift of Fire (2008) pp216-219

2. http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/digital-rights-management

3. https://www.eff.org/issues/drm

4. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/copyright/digitalrights