What digital rights management means to you

Digital Rights Management, or DRM, is a way for companies to control the way customers use their downloaded products. We’re going to look at what DRM technology means to consumers.

What is DRM?
DRM only applies to ‘digital’ products, that is music, video, ebooks (digital books that can be loaded onto a handheld reader), games and other software – there’s no way to apply DRM to a physical product such as a paperback book.

When a product is designed to be used on a computer, it becomes easy to copy. The most obvious example is music. The global music industry has spent years trying to figure out a way to stop its customers from copying CDs using a computer sharing the music that’s now available on their computers.

It’s similar to home taping of music in the 1980s but the difference is that, while tape copies offered poor quality, computer copies can be identical to the originals. While a tape can’t be easily passed on to people, the internet makes sharing digital copies easy. DRM locks each file so that while it can be easily copied, it can’t be played at the other end.

What are the problems?
The same DRM principle applies to ebooks and video downloads. It also applies to games and other software, although it works in a slightly different way.

When you try to use a DRM-protected file, the computer will look for another file called a licence, which tells it that you’re authorised to play the original file. If it can’t find the licence it will go online (the protected file includes data that tells the computer where to look online). It will go back to the service from which the file was downloaded and ask for a licence.

In order to return this, the website will normally request your username and password. If those are correctly entered, the computer will download the licence file and store it, as well as opening the original protected file you wanted to use.

The first potential problem, then, is: what happens if you forget your password? If the service is still active, you will be given the chance to recover it or have it sent to you. Without the password you won’t be able to use your file. In some cases, you may have to get in touch with technical support but usually if you have an active account it will be possible to get back in.

If you don’t have an internet connection you won’t be able to get hold of a licence. This is usually a temporary problem: when you get back online you can get the licence and it’s then stored on your computer so you don’t need to be online in future to play the music or video file.

Only a certain number of licences will be issued. For early DRM systems that was a problem as once you had used the file on, say, five computers or music players, you couldn’t copy it to anything else.

Modern systems use a more sensible method, letting you authorise and de-authorise computers as you go. That’s how Apple’s iTunes system works: if you buy an iTunes download it’s automatically registered (the iTunes application stores the username and password and checks the licence details for you). But there’s an option in the iTunes menu to de-authorise your computer so that, if you’re getting rid of it or selling it, it won’t count towards your total.

Similarly for software, Adobe allows users to de-authorise some of its products before uninstalling them, so they can be installed elsewhere, although most other companies aren’t so advanced.

A bigger problem occurs when a company stops trading, as you may not be able to authorise new computers to work with your protected files. That’s not a problem if you keep using the same computer as the licence key file will still be there and the computer can use the protected files. If you copy the files to a new computer, though, the computer will try to authorise the files through a website that doesn’t exist any more.

Recently DRM in online music sales has begun to fade away: iTunes, Amazon, 7digital and most of the big names offer downloads in the unprotected MP3 format which can be easily copied. However, it’s important to note that they shouldn’t be shared freely as such sharing is illegal and many companies embed some personal information (an email address or account number) so it’s possible to trace where a shared MP3 came from.

Our verdict
With the increasing popularity of ebook readers and music and video downloads, not to mention software downloads, DRM is not going to go away: there will always be a requirement to authenticate some purchases to prove that you’re entitled to them. If you can avoid buying unencumbered products (such as music in the MP3 format) it’s worth doing so, but if not, make sure that you know what you’re buying.

Most download services are run by companies that are unlikely to go bust overnight. But pay attention to the messages these companies send (make sure your email address on file is correct) and be aware of your rights.