Fair-Use vs. DRM

Date: 2005-05-05 | Tags: drm, media

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At least in Europe they are standing up to the tyrany of digital rights management schemes that limit consumer's rights and their enjoyment of their purchased media product.

A french court rules against the DVD copy protection scheme called CSS that is on all world wide DVDs. Since the DVD is encrypted, the consumer can't copy the DVD to make a personal copy. Of course, for several years now, the CSS keys have been publically known and there are lots of ways to copy DVDs (www.dvddecrypter.com).

Another DRM issue that is getting some visibility is online music sales. When you purchase a song from iTunes or another online music retailer, it comes in an encrypted format. This limits you to where you can listen to it (eg. iTunes songs can only be played through iTunes or an iPod) and how you can archive it (eg. what happens when the computer you stored the music on dies?).

I'm not against DRM, so long that it doesn't remove any benefits that I currently enjoy when I purchase a CD/DVD. Like I said previouly, the time to come up with a compromise solution to DRM and entertainment content is closing as more and more people enjoy the added benefits of downloading music and movies.
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