 - Digital rights management (DRM) is a systematic approach to copyright protection for digital media. DRM's purpose is to prevent illegal distribution of paid content over the Internet. DRM products were developed in response to the rapid increase in online piracy of commercially marketed material, which proliferated through the widespread use of Napster and other peer-to-peer file exchange programs.
Although online content is protected by copyright laws, policing the
Web and catching law-breakers is very difficult. DRM technology focuses
on making it impossible to steal Web content in the first place, a much
surer approach to the problem than the hit-and-miss strategies aimed at
apprehending online poachers after the fact. DRM products are available from a number of vendors, including ContentGuard, Digimarc, and InterTrust, to automate the processes involved. In general, DRM products are turnkey packages that include everything needed for the operation, such as, for example, server software and user plug-ins.
ContentGuard's DRM product has four major components: a protection toolkit that allows users to decide on their own access and encryption rules, a distribution
toolkit that helps users create interfaces for content distribution, a
consumer toolkit that verifies authorization before content is distributed,
and a back-office component that tracks usage and licensing. ContentGuard DRM software uses XrML (Extensible Rights Markup Language), the company's patented XML-based language. MPEG REL (ISO/IEC 21000-5:2004), a rights expression language, is based on XrML.
ContentGuard actively promotes DRM standardization as a member of the Content Reference Forum (CRF) (Microsoft, Universal Music, and VeriSign are among the other members). CRF exists to increase interoperability among digital content technologies, and to improve the quality of content distribution to the consumer.
| LAST UPDATED: |
16 Oct 2006
|
 |
Read more about digital rights management:
|
|
Do you have something to add to this definition? Let us know.
Send your comments to techterms@whatis.com
|
|
