the trajectory of drm technologies
DESCRIPTION
Keynote presentation at ODRL/Virtual Goods Workshop, September 2009, Nancy, France. Discussion of the past, present, and future of DRM and other rights technologies. Evaluation of DRM according to the four factors from Lawrence Lessig's book "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace". Predictions of whether "classic DRM" has a future.TRANSCRIPT
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GiantStepsMedia Technology Strategies© 2009 1
The Trajectory of DRM Technologies: Past, Present, and Future
Bill Rosenblatt
GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies
+1 212 956 1045
www.giantstepsmts.com
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Outline
How DRM technologies developed
Factors influencing their evolution– Lessig’s 4 factors
The current state
Possibilities for the future
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How DRM Technologies Developed
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The Birth of DRM: Mid-1990s
Conference: Technological Strategies for Protecting Intellectual Property in the Networked Multimedia Environment, late 1993, Washington DC– Sponsored by Coalition for Networked Information, Interactive
Multimedia Association, MIT, and Harvard Kennedy School of Government
White Paper: Mark Stefik, Xerox PARC, Letting Loose the Light: Igniting Commerce in Electronic Publication, 1994– Appears as chapter in Internet Dreams, MIT Press, 1996
First important patent applications filed
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Early Technologies
CD-ROM Protection (mid-90s)
CD-MAX
CrypKey
InfoSafe
TestDrive
TTR
1996-1997
DeskGate
Digital River IBM Cryptolope
EPR/InterTrust DigiBox
Liquid Audio
ZipLock (Portland Software)
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Early Technologies
1998 DMOD
FileOpen Greenleaf
MediaDNA
NetQuartz
Phocis
Preview Systems
RightsMarket (TragoeS)
Softlock
ViaTech
1999 Alchemedia
Authentica (now EMC) ContentGuard (Xerox)
Infraworks (now Liquid Machines)
NetActive
Perimele
PublishOne
SDC (now Packet Video) VYou
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How Were These Sold?
Legal dept: Make the Internet safe for your content– Print documents -> protected PDFs– CDs -> digital music files
Marketing: Enable new business models for content– Pay per view– Subscription– Site licenses
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What Happened?
Bubble burst
Content owners would not pay, and/orvendors charged too much
Business models were not developed or marketed
DRM became subsidiary to platform control(formats, codecs, players)
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Second Bubble ca. 2005:Mobile
OMA DRM
CoreMedia
Viaccess
Beep Science
Lockstream/Irdeto
Access
NDS
Discretix
Etc.
Others
SDC
Melodeo
Teruten
INKA (Netsync)
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A Pseudo-Scientific DRM Market Barometer: Vendors on Trade Show Floors
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The DRM Scene Today:Music
Internet: DRM confined to subscription services– E.g. Napster, Rhapsody– DRMs: mostly Microsoft WM DRM 10/11
Mobile: various DRM-based models– Device/music bundles: Nokia Comes With Music,
Sony Ericsson PlayNow Plus– Subscription models– Paid downloads– DRMs: OMA DRM, Microsoft WM DRM,
Microsoft PlayReady, SDC
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The DRM Scene Today:Video
Internet: download and rental services– Apple iTunes: FairPlay– Blockbuster, CinemaNow, others: WM DRM
Mobile: digital broadcast, WiFi– OMA BCAST Profile
IPTV, TelcoTV, Digital Cable– CA vendors (Irdeto, Nagra, NDS, etc.)– Marlin– Widevine– Verimatrix– SecureMedia
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The DRM Scene Today:E-Books
Amazon– Mobipocket DRM– Kindle, iPhone, other portables
EReader– Partnership with Barnes & Noble, #1 US book retailer– Proprietary DRM– PC, Mac, iPhone, other portables
Adobe– Sony, IREX, Plastic Logic, other e-book devices– Content Server DRM– PC, Mac, iPhone
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The DRM Scene Today:Enterprise
Corporate/institutional applications
Became a distinct subfield in ~2003
Now considered part of Content Management market
Leading vendors:– Microsoft & partners– EMC (Authentica)– Oracle (SealedMedia)– Adobe
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Pioneering DRMs that Didn’t Survive
Intertrust– Digibox/InterRightsPoint– RightsSystem
IBM– infoMarket– EMMS
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Larry Lessig’s Four Factors*
Architecture (technology)
Norms (behaviors)
Law
Market (economics)
*Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, 1999, pp. 88-90
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Architecture
Technology Enablers
File encryption
Network connectivity & bandwidth
License management
Rule specifications & RELs
Criteria
Ease of use
Maintenance of user rights & expectations
Security effectiveness
Low support costs
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Norms
Sources of Norms
Popular online tool usage patterns
Trust
Opinions of thought leaders
Motivations of hackers
Criteria
Necessity of DRM in the first place
Height of barriers
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Law
Laws
Copyright infringement liability
Content usage rights
Anticircumvention
Criteria
Technological implementability
User comprehensibility
Balance of burden
Effect on legitimate uses of technology and innovation
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Market
Economic Factors
Compensation for content creators
Investment in technology development and R&D
Consumer value and choice
The pull of free
Criteria
Alignment of economic incentives
Maximization of value to consumer through alternative offers
Maximization of value to publisher despite alternative sources
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Factors Against DRM Success
Market: – Economic incentives misaligned
Norms: – Users don’t see value in choices of offers– Norms distorted by architecture (technology)
Architecture: – Technological innovation hampered
Laws:– Laws not amenable to technological implementation
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Economic Incentives Misaligned
Content owners demand it but will not pay for it– Despite high expenditures on “anti-piracy services”– Claim that content protection is responsibility of technology
vendors who want to offer access to their content
CE vendors use it to suit their own purposes– Platform lock-in
Consumers have no direct say in deliberations– Only indirect market forces
In the end, music companies got what they paid for
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Consumers Don’t See Value in Choices of Offers
Expensive to educate consumers about unfamiliar offerings– Apple had huge marketing budget to educate about
unbundled albums– But Rhapsody, Napster, etc. didn’t educate sufficiently
about subscription services
Focus is on getting rights equivalent to offline content– Perception: pay == ownership && free == radio;
therefore the only improvement is free == ownership
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Users Influenced towards Infringing Behavior
Definition of DRM commandeered by the press– Narrower than original definitions– Yet broadened to apply to any technology that restricts user
behavior in any way
Notion that DRM == Big Media == evil
Romanticism & rationalization of hacker/pirate ethic
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Technological Innovation Hampered
Lack of revenue for DRM vendors
Venture capital scared off– Bad press– Non-sexy topic
Researchers scared off– RIAA actions against Prof. Ed Felten in 1999– DRM research “politically incorrect” in US
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Laws Not Amenable to Technological Implementation
Fair Use/Fair Deailing laws notoriously hard to automate– EU Private Copying less so
Privacy and due process are important but become obstacles– French Loi HADOPI
Anticircumvention laws reduce incentive to develop effective technologies– 1993-6 accommodation between content and telecoms industries– WIPO Copyright Treaty, EU Copyright Directive, US DMCA– Liability solely on the hacker– Important US appeals court case: Universal v. Reimerdes, 2000
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A Few Success Stories
Apple FairPlay
“Cheap and dirty” DRM
Component in first successful digital music application
Educated consumers about unbundling of albums
Tightly tied to hardware and software, no boundary glitches
Lesson: Hardware vendor discovers how to benefit from DRM
Pay TV Digital CAS
Cable operators want to protect signals from theft
“Walled garden” systems (no PCs)
Limited alternatives
Lesson: Alignment of economic incentives
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A Few Success Stories
OverDrive E-Book Lending Adobe Content Server supports e-
book lending
E-Book lending expands power of library services despite lack of marketing ability
Small market well served by single vendor, encourages efficiency
Lesson: True expansion of consumer choices through DRM
AACS (Blu-ray) Designed to address problems
with CSS for DVDs
Costlier DRM in costlier product
Graceful hack recovery
Impact of hacks overstated in press
DVD industry forced to improve functionality
Lesson: Better DRM costs more money
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Status of Rights Technologies Today
File encryption
License management
Rule specifications & RELs
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Encryption
Crypto algorithms were never an issue
Cost is the issue– Key management schemes– Hardware vs. software key storage
Software key management has gotten better– Graceful failure e.g. AACS
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License Management
Flexibility, yes
Transparency, no
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Rights Specifications/RELs
Technology applicable outside of encryption
Complex starting point was probably necessary– Emulate offline/legacy licensing models
But didn’t work– XrML designed by engineers for engineers
Market needed time to find opportunities for simplicity– Remember ICE? Me neither.– Remember RSS? Of course.
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Future Possibilities
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Grow from Simplicity
Emulation of legacy models is doomed to failure– Consumer expectations– Technological complexity– Misaligned economics
New business models based on simpler technology can succeed– Create models to fit new opportunities– Build complexity from the ground up instead
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UGC Will Lead the Way
YouTube, DailyMotion, Flickr, Scribd, MySpace are the 0.X models
Volume dwarfs that of commercial content
UGC needs rights management too
Exposure is important, but so are monetization and use tracking
“Profit from abundance” is not inconsistent with rights management
Ultimately, “commercial content” = “marketing investment”
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Bet on These Technologies
Rights languages
Content identification
Connected devices and streaming
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Rights Languages
Creative Commons– When services use it to make money, it’s no longer a
“religion”– Note how “free” became “open source”– Commercial content owners beginning to look at it seriously
ODRL– Moving beyond encryption applications– Making all the right moves: subsetting, PLUS, CC
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Content Identification
Fingerprinting
Easy to implement now
Works with content “as is” Difficult at the ISP level
Poor integration with rights languages
Not much benefit from standardization
Too many vendors, market ripe for consolidation
Watermarking
Requires “connecting the dots” Requires insertion
Easier at the ISP level
Good integration with rights languages
Would benefit greatly from standardization
Market has already consolidated
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Connected Devices and Streaming
License management becomes much easier– No slave device transfer issues
Encryption becomes less disruptive
Consumer expectations shift away from ownership– Services no longer devolve to “MP3 delivery” model
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Will Classic DRM Survive?
Yes, where it supports new content models– Subscription– Personal network boundary setting– Hardware or service provider boundary setting
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Bill RosenblattGiantSteps Media Technology Strategies
[email protected]+1 212 956 1045
www.giantstepsmts.com