Digital Rights Management Maxim Fastovsky

What is DRM? DRM technologies attempt to control use of digital media by preventing access, copying or conversion to other formats by end users. It’s an attempt by the entertainment industry to preserve copyright laws Used by iTunes, e-book publishers, also DVR’s and Tivo

Technologies Film – Used in HD DVD and Blu Ray to prevent illegal copy of the movie Television – DRM is used in digital video recorders to prevent copying data from the hard drive Audio – DRM was used for cd’s to prevent copying, but it prevented it from running in some cd players

Usage - Internet iTunes – Apple used DRM on files, later they changed the tracks to being DRM free Napster – downloadable music could not be played until subscription was renewed Kazaa – can only be played on devices with windows media player Most other music stores were using DRM, but most stopped

Usage - Games Lately DRM started to be used in games Requires to always be connected to the internet while playing Half Life 2 connected to Steam Ubisoft started using DRM with prince of persia in 2008 Sims 3 in 2008

Usage - Games Ubisoft announced all games from now on will use DRM ◦Silent Hunter 5 ◦Assassins Creed 2 ◦Splinter Cell Conviction ◦Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands

Controversies Richard Stallman – “The rights to read” - "DRM is an example of a malicious feature - a feature designed to hurt the user of the software, and therefore, it's something for which there can never be toleration“ TechMediums.com – DRM free music allows for viral marketing because independent artists benefit from free marketing

Controversies Bill Gates – says DRM is not where it should be, causes problems for legitimate users. Steve Jobs – Was against DRM music, and ordered iTunes to stop using it. However still didn’t remove DRM from it’s video catalog. Programs were created to strip DRM out of files, such as FairUse4WM

Is it Worth It? Even though the idea might be good but it hurts legitimate customers, hackers would hack a DRM file easily, but legitimate users might continue to suffer. Requires you to always be online, you cant listen to your music or play your games if you are on a laptop without internet connection. Assassins Creed 2, one of the most anticipated games of the past 2 years DRM was hacked in few hours, while legitimate users had problems connecting to servers.