Digital Rights Mischief :: Ethics

Digital Rights Mischief Imagine a world where media is kept privately. A world in which the books you read and the music you listen to is as protected as your social security number – maybe even more so. What if someone asked to borrow your laptop, the very place you kept your media? â€Å"This put Dan in a dilemma. He had to help her – but if he lent her his computer, she might read his books. Aside from the fact that you could go to prison for many years for letting someone else read your books, the very idea shocked him at first. Like everyone, he had been taught since elementary school that sharing books was nasty and wrong – something that only pirates would do.† Thus begins a short story by Richard Stallman, who paints a very bleak future of the technologies we have today. Yet the gradual way this society became so controlled begins with a single step. That step is digital rights management. Digital rights management, DRM, and Trusted Computing, TC, infringe upon consu mers’ rights and should be met with public boycott. DRM and TC limit rights by controlling digital media. In order to control content, DRM and TC use a computer identification system to verify a user’s right to use media. The Electronic Privacy Information Center defines DRM as systems that â€Å"restrict the use of digital files in order to protect the interests of copyright holders.† DRM systems can control many aspects of the usability of a particular file. They can limit portability, the ability to share or print a file. They can control access, the ability to read, write, or save a file. DRM systems commonly use one of two methods to achieve control. Encryption protects files from outside sources, giving only authorized software access to a file. This authorized software will then follow the policies set forth by the DRM system. The other method, marking, is a way of telling software to treat the file as protected. This works best in proprietary systems where only a few applications can read a particular f ile. Both methods then enforce rules that the DRM system applies to the file. Generally these include determining the identity of the computer trying to access the file, often using a unique numbering scheme. Digital Rights Mischief :: Ethics Digital Rights Mischief Imagine a world where media is kept privately. A world in which the books you read and the music you listen to is as protected as your social security number – maybe even more so. What if someone asked to borrow your laptop, the very place you kept your media? â€Å"This put Dan in a dilemma. He had to help her – but if he lent her his computer, she might read his books. Aside from the fact that you could go to prison for many years for letting someone else read your books, the very idea shocked him at first. Like everyone, he had been taught since elementary school that sharing books was nasty and wrong – something that only pirates would do.† Thus begins a short story by Richard Stallman, who paints a very bleak future of the technologies we have today. Yet the gradual way this society became so controlled begins with a single step. That step is digital rights management. Digital rights management, DRM, and Trusted Computing, TC, infringe upon consu mers’ rights and should be met with public boycott. DRM and TC limit rights by controlling digital media. In order to control content, DRM and TC use a computer identification system to verify a user’s right to use media. The Electronic Privacy Information Center defines DRM as systems that â€Å"restrict the use of digital files in order to protect the interests of copyright holders.† DRM systems can control many aspects of the usability of a particular file. They can limit portability, the ability to share or print a file. They can control access, the ability to read, write, or save a file. DRM systems commonly use one of two methods to achieve control. Encryption protects files from outside sources, giving only authorized software access to a file. This authorized software will then follow the policies set forth by the DRM system. The other method, marking, is a way of telling software to treat the file as protected. This works best in proprietary systems where only a few applications can read a particular f ile. Both methods then enforce rules that the DRM system applies to the file. Generally these include determining the identity of the computer trying to access the file, often using a unique numbering scheme.