ECMS/DRM

This page considers intellectual property aspects of Electronic Copyright Management Systems (ECMS) or Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems.

It covers -

• introduction
• problems
• technical studies
• legal studies
• projects

It is supplemented by a broader note on DRM, discussing technical, privacy, marketing and other issues.

     introduction

ECMS are viewed by some as a means of enticing the information genie back within the copyright bottle. Others characterise them as assaults on fair use that are doomed to failure because of technological inadequacies.

Some ECMS are protocols and databases that automate existing licensing arrangements. Others - the holy grail of digital copyright - would integrate online payment systems with automated rights licensing and measures that both inhibit misuse of content distributed online and underpin enforcement action if misuse occurs.

     problems and possible solutions

Many publications - including many films, multimedia works and sound recordings - consist of bundles of intellectual property, eg the various photographs and other illustrations in a book or multimedia CD or the bundle of music score and performance in a sound recording. 

Identifying who owns each item, gaining permission for its use and distributing fees or royalties is a daunting task.

The 'minimalist' ECMS do not attempt to provide technological protection for content being accessed online or distributed in media such as CD-ROMs. Instead, they are far less ambitious, aiming to link existing databases maintained by rights management bodies and to establish globally-accepted labels for identification of each bundle and the components of which it is formed. 

There is currently little uniformity between databases in different countries and between industries. Getting the various computers to talk to each other and encouraging the inclusion of pertinent information - particularly as metadata - in digital works (online, in CDs, in broadcasts) is proving to be a major challenge for administrative as well as technological reasons. 

The 'maximalist' ECMS projects, considered by Lessig and others as probably a defining feature of the next generation of the web, go well beyond those building blocks. They aim to permanently identify digital publications (using steganography and other tools noted in our Security guide) and to 'wrap' them with encryption or other measures to inhibit misuse such as unauthorised redistribution and incorporation in other publications. 

Some of the maximalist schemes would involve levels of restriction (eg view and copy, view and partially copy, view but not copy), with differential payments being made online in a secure environment. Some envisage access on a micropayment basis. 

Most would allow for seamless online licensing and rights trading (based on the links set up by minimalist projects), with royalties being automatically negotiated and distributed and would be backed up by spiders and other 'smart' tools for identifying unauthorised redistribution. 

On a publication by publication basis administrative costs would be dramatically lower than at present. ECMS advocates claim there'd be greater transparency in what money's being collected when from whom. Use of the publications would be underpinned by contract law - emerging as an area of concern within the US and Australia with debate about initiatives such as UCITA - as well as intellectual property law.

     technical and management studies

As a starting point for considering ECMS in theory and practice we recommend three documents

Electronic Rights Management & Digital Identifier Systems, an article by Daniel Gervais in The Journal of Electronic Publishing

Gervais' major report of December 1999 for the WIPO Advisory Committee On Management Of Copyright & Related Rights In Global Information Networks

the February 2002 EC staff paper (PDF) on Digital Rights: Background, Systems Assessment

Steganography and other authentication technologies are discussed in our Infocrime & Security guide.

In considering past developments the final report of the UK ECMS Scoping Study (1996) and the proceedings of the 1994 conference on Technological Strategies for Protecting Intellectual Property in the Networked Multimedia Environment under the auspices of the Coalition for Networked Information, the US Interactive Multimedia Association & MIT may be useful. John Erickson's 1995 paper on A Copyright Management System for Networked Interactive Multimedia offers another perspective. 

For identifiers one starting point is the paper by Brian Green & Mark Bide on Unique Identifiers: a brief introduction. 

Peter Wayner's Digital Copyright Protection (Boston: AP Professional 1997) is a sensible introduction to encryption and document marking technologies, including the identification of audiovisual content.

     legal studies

Some of the privacy and other legal questions posed by ECMS are explored in Julie Cohen's 1997 Berkeley Technology Law Journal paper Some Reflections on Copyright Management Systems & Laws Designed to Protect Them, and Graham Greenleaf's 1999 paper 'IP, phone home!' - ECMS, (c)-tech, and protecting privacy against surveillance by digital works. Cohen's 1996 paper A Right to Read Anonymously: A Closer Look at Copyright Management in Cyberspace is also suggestive

The discussion of ECMS in Bernt Hugenholtz's Copyright & Electronic Commerce - Legal Aspects of Electronic Copyright Management (Amsterdam: Kluwer 00) is particularly valuable.

The UK IMPRIMATUR project resulted in a 1998 report (PDF) on Privacy, Data Protection and Copyright: Their Interaction in the Context of Electronic Copyright Management Systems by Lee Bygrave & Kamiel Koelman of the Amsterdam Institute for Information Law.

The 2001 conference in Sydney, hosted by the Australian Copyright Industry Alliance, showcased INDECS (Interoperability of Data in E-Commerce Systems) - an international project developing mechanisms for trading intellectual property online, including text, audio-visual content, music and multimedia works.

     projects

Because of the technical challenges and potential revenues such projects have involved major bodies such as IBM. So far, no one has been able to put all of the pieces together, although work on particular components is very promising. Despite large expenditure the holy grail remains elusive. 

However, some of the recent criticisms of the DCMA and Australia's Digital Agenda legislation by bodies such as the Digital Future Coalition and the Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC) are not entirely misplaced if - as foreshadowed by Lessig - a robust, low-cost and effective system is developed.

The Project Hudson consortium involves Intel, Toshiba, Nokia, Samsung and Matshushita. The Hudson wireless protection plan could permit users of hand-held devices to share movie or music files on a limited basis or permit files to be shared for promotional purposes, with consumers for example hearing a song before deciding whether to buy it.

   next page  (Fair Use)