DRM - Digital Restrictions Management

Digital Restrictions Management, or DRM (there are other back-populations of the Acronym - but they are less accurate), is software that controls how you use your digital property, in conjunction with encryption that prevents you from using the property without the software. So far this is mainly used for Audio and Video, and more rarely Text (in pdfs and the like). DVD's have a predecessor technology built-in, in the form of region codes, and the wrangling about the new DVD format is partially about the DRM. It's also built into every song you buy from iTunes, or Yahoo, or Real . And sometimes, but rarely, it's even burnt into audio CDs.

The problem with this -- other than the fact that you can't make mix tapes, or play you music on all you computers, or do any number of other things, is that the bad guys can. Because the encrypted songs have to be decrypted to play, the player has the decryption key. This means every new form of DRM is cracked instantly - and that anyone with a search engine, can strip the DRM from their property. So we're punishing the good guys only, the people who pay and play buy the rules -- cause anyone else just strips and shares.

But beyond that we are starting to punish people more, and make them spend cash on hardware to support this software -- the new version of windows will require new monitors (at least for some uses). This is because anytime after the DRM is removed making a copy is a cinch - no need to even crack the encryption. So the Movie studios and Record companies need DRM not just in the DVD Players and computers -- but in the screens and speakers and well everything.

There's not much you can do, except not purchase DRMed products when there are other options. We buy our online music from Emusic in DRM free MP3 format - rather than from iTunes (which has a saner DRM policies than others -- but it's still DRMed). Or we buy the CD and rip it.

The economics will win eventually.

And if you care about this stuff you should definitely check out this blog/column

And here the EFF compares the Music DRM choices.

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