Digital Media Copy Protection

Chris St. Jean

4/25/05

EGR 3305

Introduction

Benefits

Problems

Resources

Introduction to Digital Media Copy Protection

In the age of the internet everything is digital. Music, books, and movies can all be compressed digitally and passed around without the knowledge of their owner. The internet and file sharing has changed the face of copyrighted media. The biggest problem with digital media these days is piracy. The internet has been a big player in the digital media revolution. With the rise and fall of Napster, the music industry has found out the hard way how not to market its products. Once Napster was shot down, another file sharing network popped up to take its place. The music industry is fighting a never-ending battle with these music pirates. The business side of the music industry says no business model can compete with free. Even with the MP3 revelation of the file sharer, the recorded music industry receives 32 billion dollars a year in revenue [1]. After the success of Napster peer to peer group stopped just sharing only music and broadened their scope to anything digital. A person with an internet connection can go and download movies, books, and even expensive applications off these file sharing groups.

The increasing speed of internet connection and the decrease in the price of memory storage is also a big reason why file sharing has grown so rapidly [2].

The solution that these media producer have come up with is to use digital media rights management technologies to protect their products [4]. These technologies make it more complicated for the user to use the products they buy. These technologies have never existed before on bound books and compact discs [4].

Most people would think that laws would be made to protect these industries livelihoods. The laws have been made but they are so complex that even lawyers don’t comprehend them [4]. The problem here is between the producers who want to be paid for their work and the digital industry that does not want to stop meaningful invention.

The courts have made many opinions on this subject. They have decided that if the digital media is stored on a server that is owned by the file sharing network then it is illegal. The way peer to peer groups get around is by a big loophole. The newer file sharing networks are just software that enable computers to connect to each other with no middleman servers owned by the company that produce the software.

Figure 1. Napster and Lime wire websites [5] [6]

Napster has changed its ways after being shut down in the late 1990s. It is now a pay-per-song downloading service that allows artist to get paid for their work. Lime wire on the other hand is a peer to peer group where a user can download any digital media that can be found on the computers connected to the network for free.

Benefits of Digital Media Copy Protection

The benefits of digital media copy protection are only for the maker of the media. With useful right management software most pirating could be eliminated. With most file sharing eliminated there would be no option but to buy the media from the people who produced it. This would put the market the way it once was before the internet came along and changed everything. The producers of media are always scared that a new way of doing things will change their industry. When the radio came around the music industry though there job would be over [3]. This obviously did not happen. There will always be people who are going to pay for everything and the media producers will not suffer from copyright violations. There will always be people who are going to copy tapes, burn CDs, and download music so the music industry should just put their concerns away and keep producing because the bottom lines are not getting any smaller no matter what new technologies bring.

There are plenty of ethical issues associated with digital media copy protection. When digital media is downloaded it is like stealing from the manufacturer. Artists don’t get paid for work that is downloaded. You can’t will stealing of digital media to be universal, so it is immoral. Not that it being immoral stops anyone from doing it.

Problems with Digital Media Copy Protection

The problem with right management software is that as soon as it is released a hacker has already broken the code and it is free and open to the public again. All it takes is one open copy spread over the internet to turn into millions of free copies for the file sharing public.

In 1998 the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) made it illegal to produce any software that would make copy protection software not work correctly. If a copy protection software is broken and the producer finds out who broke the code, it could not only sue for stealing the media but for breaking the code in the first place [4].

Digital media copy protection also keeps useful products off the market because they could be used for file sharing purposes.

Companies who produce media could avoid all digital media copy protection problems if they put a reasonable price on the media they make. In the case of music downloads most song on pay service cost about 99 cents per song. If you look at the price of a compact disc it is about 15 dollars, which would also be about a dollar per song. But wait, the music company did not have to produce the round discs and the various papers that come with them. They did not have to ship the CDs all over the world to stores where they could be sold. The songs are just created and put on a server to sell. This has to cost less then the alternative. If it was cheaper, say 25 cents per song, many more users would drop there file sharing ways in order to get better quality music and not have to worry about the FBI knocking on their door. I know that the music industry says nothing can compete with free, but if the price and profits were more reasonable more people would be willing to pay.

Links for more information on Digital Media Rights Protection

Definition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management

Resources

[1] T. Mock, “Music Everywhere,” IEEE Spectrum, pp.42-47, September 2004.

[2] S. Bhattacharjee et al., “Digital Music and Online Sharing: Software Piracy 2.0?,” Communications of the ACM, pp.107-111, July 2003.

[3] D.S. Wallach, “Copy Protection Technology is doomed,” Computer, pp.48-49, October 2001.

[4] S.M. Cherry, “Getting Copyright Right,” IEEE Spectrum, pp.47-51, February 2002.

[5] www.napster.com

[6] www.limewire.com