Rick Weingarten
Director, OITP/ALA

Some History

• Copy protection
  • Earliest days
• Technological Protection
  • Measures
  • DMCA
• Digital Rights Management
  • Coming home to roost

DRM is...

"A system of information technology components and services, along with corresponding law, policies and business models, which strive to distribute and control intellectual property and its rights." -- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

So, What is DRM Technology, Really?

• Generally, technology intended to:
• Identify work (or component)
• Identify user of a work
  • Person
  • Site
  • Proxy
• Map access rights/usage rules between the two
• Enforce access/usage rules
• "Persist" downstream

DRM: The Provider End

• Identifiable chunk of information, a "work" (or component of work)
• Set of rules—what can be done with it by whom.
• Lots of other descriptive data, too.

• Digital "Wrapper" — often encryption — but not always.

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  DRM: The User End

• A set of specific "authorities" to use information.

• "Certificates" permitting particular access and use.
• Trusted devices for decoding and enforcing the rules.

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  The Work --> Add Rights and Rules Description --> "Wrap" it Digitally --> Deliver it --> "Trusted" device --> Grants access --> According to rules --> User Unlocks with "key"

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  Or

The Work --> "Wrap" it Digitally --> Data base of Rights and Rules --> Deliver it --> "Trusted" device --> Grants access --> According to rules --> User Unlocks with "key"

Important Point

+Although intended to mediate between provider and user, the logic of a full scale DRM system requires technological conformity at all points in the digital infrastructure. + Chips + Devices + Software + Networks + Content + User (Identification and authentication)

Why Do We Care?

• Libraries part of information infrastructure +Access providers and Information providers
  • Remember the "Important Point?"
• Threatens balance in copyright
  • Loaning, fair use, archiving, etc technologically difficult
  • interpretations of law in hands of providers
• Impacts on costs of operation
• Impact on innovation, new ways to create and access
  • Very hard to change deeply imbedded standards
  • DRM embodies assumptions about business/service models
• Legal obligations (TEACH, DMCA)

• Broader impacts

  • Privacy, Access to public information, First amendment

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    Why legislation?

• Protect against hacking

  • No system is foolproof

• Force cooperation

  • Device manufacturers
  • Deny consumers choice
  • Block alternative business models

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    Principal Political Arguments

• Usual piracy stuff

• Failure of promises
  • Telecommunications Act
• So where’s Broadband??
  • DMCA
• So, where’s the cornucopia of new content?

• Interesting merging of telecom and intellectual property debate

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  Two Fundamental Questions

• Will it fail?

  • If so, why worry

• Is it Inevitable?

  • If so, better get cracking

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    Might It Fail?

• History of failure (DVX, SDMI)

• System wide
  • entire infrastructure
  • All digital devices
• Very complicated standards process. Lots of
  • players
  • formats (movies, music, texts, photos, etc.)
  • conflicting interests
  • technologies

• Consumer revolt!

  • Complexity and expense
  • Intrusion on customary uses
  • Ease of circumvention--"Prohibition experience"

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    Is it Inevitable?

• Variety of Pressures

  • Internet Security
  • Law enforcement
  • Other access control/ Surveillance incentives
  • International pressures
• Merging industries
  • Submerged conflicts of perspective
• Sony, AOL/ Time Warner, etc.

• Legislative/ Regulatory pressure

  • Even if bills don’t get passed.

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    Policy Dilemma

• Can’t afford to assume it will fail

• Legislative success may not suffice

• Need to leverage standards process

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  DRM and Libraries: Dilemmas

• Policy and technical issues are complex

• Many arenas of action
  • Courts, Legislature, International, Rulemakings, Dozens of private standards groups.

• Limited resources to participate in standards

  • People
  • Money

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    Current Activity

• Legislation

  • Hollings
  • Tauzin, etc.
  • It’ll be baaaack!
  • Good legislation (Boucher, Lofgren)
• Rulemaking
  • CO Anticircumvention in DMCA
  • FCC and Broadcast Flag

• Private standards efforts

  • Dozens of arenas
  • Interlock with policy
  • Not what we are used to

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    What To Do

• Don’t default to campus computing.

  • Work with them
• Dedicate library technical staff time to policy debate
  • Internal policy-making
  • External technical debate

• Participate in the political debate

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  Long Term Consequences

• Unanticipated effects

• Powerful technology, far beyond copyright
• Information tools for modern authoritarian state
  • Surveillance
  • Information control