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c D R M
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This product had to be protected, because the Then one day, across all of the content industries,
individual discs represented a singular opportunity content distribution experts realized that the value
to sell to a consumer. Every illicit copy of the people were buying when they bought the content was
product represented a sale that was lost forever. the experience itself, and that how and when they got
all of the content was not a concern to consumers if
And Then DRM was born done right - as long as they had what they needed
when they wanted to have the experience.
This was the birthplace of Copy Protection and of
Digital Rights Management (DRM)… and very quickly,
an unfortunate pattern arose. An ‘un-copyable’ method Content as a Service may Dramatically
would be deployed, content would be protected for
a while and then some clever person somewhere Reduce Content Theft
would crack it and tell the world how to steal the
content. This pattern has persisted for much of the Thus, entertainment and content services were born … and
past 20 years and during that time, an entire industry that is where we are today … at the dawn of a new age.
dedicated to the protection of content was spawned.
A world in which the content consumption experience can
After a decade or so, content companies came to be a service, is a world in which there may be no large
understand that the content could be copied even with monolithic instance of content to copy. For example, in
a protective method in place but they kept paying for the video game space, if a content creator was selling
theoretical protection, because it was their way of doing a monolithic basketball game, then it would be a target
things and it did stop some people, some of the time. for hackers and would be widely copied. But if that
vendor instead were selling a gaming service, where last
Certain DRM and Copy Protection vendors stepped up night’s real-world basketball game would be available to
their game and developed methods that were stronger, customers via the internet today, there isn’t much to steal
harder to crack but which were also harder to use. Added and copy because that experience is only valuable TODAY.
to which the customers who bought the content protected Tomorrow, there will be a new game between two other
by these methods did not enjoy the experience – often the teams and today’s game will be of interest to nobody.
protective system was so strong that it locked them out.
In a model like this, the experience is a continuum
Eventually these methods were also cracked. of service and that service can’t be copied or stolen
with the same ease that a game or movie can be
At the same time, distribution of content on the copied today. A service is secure if the means of
internet was increasing and people developed authenticating users is robust – and user authentication
habits of looking for stolen content and finding it and access controls are a significant focus of security
on illicit sites, available free of charge. Consumers best practices and are far more secure than any
began to develop habits and preferences based copy protection on a shiny disk can ever be.
upon the free availability of illicit content.
Does DRM Still Matter in an Internet
The Rise of the Internet as a
and Web Service Oriented World?
Distribution Model
So where does DRM and Copy Protection play a role?
Illicit delivery of content was one of the first internet Does it go the way of the shiny silver disc, suffer the
delivery models but the content creators did eventually fate of the video tape, the 8-track tape, the LP record?
adopt the internet for legitimate content … and initially,
they treated the web as a big virtual shiny disc and Probably not. DRM still has a place in the
continued to sell large monolithic instances of content, content service-oriented world.
delivered by the network, wrapped up in protection
methods that were consistently rendered ineffective – Content services like these are really made up of a
often by very skilled teenagers and young adults with continuum of small incremental content downloads,
deep technical skills and a desire to distribute it for free. like last night’s basketball game and these content
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