Digital Rights Management: What you can and cannot do with purchased media.

So, what exactly is Digital Rights Management?

According to BBC news, digital rights management is “a class of technologies that allow rights owners to set and enforce terms by which people use their intellectual property.” This means that people who hold rights can set limits and rules that have to be followed by the buyers and users of their products. The most common rights holders include film and music industries, which makes sense because of the popularity of these industries. The most frequent use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) is restricting the copying of a product. This makes it harder for users to obtain products for free without paying for a service. Users actually have to purchase the product or share it on a peer to peer file sharing network for it to be safe, legal, and on board with DRM.

How does Digital Rights Management work?

DRM works quite simply in two parts. First, it uses encryption which protects the media content itself. Second, it requires an authentication system which allows only authorized users to have access to the encrypted files. If an unauthorized user tries to gain access to the files, the DRM mixes the data making it unidentifiable to the user. Once these files are properly accessed by users with the proper information, these files can still be shared illegally. However, a user without the correct access code cannot fully access the file and the file will more than likely not be able to be read by, for example, by the MP3 format. This keeps these files save and virus free.

What does the DRM mean to my downloads?

DRM for me, means that I can file share music using peer to peer services and know that my music is going to be safe and virus free. Hopefully, I can find exactly the music I am looking for, relatively easy, with confidence that it is not going to harm my computer or device that I am downloading it to. I think that this is a smart idea and a way for users to have to pay for the high quality, legit music. Most of the time, downloads that are obtained illegally are low quality and come with the risk of infecting your computer. Using p2p services also allows me to share a larger variety of music so that I personally do not have to spend tons of money buying music but it is more spread out.

Michael Hart: Founder of eBooks

Michael Hart was born in 1947 in Tacoma, Washington and died in 2011 in Urbana, Illinois. Through his short, 64 year old, lifespan he changed the way that books were available to the public. He created something called “eBooks” or the electronic book, and succeeded to promote his creation through Project Gutenburg. 

In his younger years, Hart attended University of Illinois which was also where both of his parents were professors. He graduated from here in just two years but never went on to complete graduate school. During his time at the University of Illinois is when he was given an account and decided to use it to distribute information, more or less go on to create eBooks. Surprisingly enough, some unusual aspects of his life were that his parents taught mathematics and Shakespeare. One may have thought that his parents were computer geniuses or some way involved with technology. Another unusual aspect was that he was also very much “Mr. Fix-It.” Anything that was broken, including his car, house, computer, and even himself, he would take it upon himself to fix.

The most interesting part of Michael Hart’s story to me is how he came about creating the first eBook. According to an article in the New York Times, after the fourth of July in 1971 he stopped at a grocery store where he received a copy of the Declaration of Independence. When he returned home he typed on to his computer completely copying the Declaration word for word. His intentions were to send the document he typed up as an e-mail to the computer network that created the internet.  However, one of his colleagues warned him that the message would crash the system. With this information, he decided to notify the public that the text could be downloaded which lead to the birthing of Project Gutenburg.

Project Gutenburg is the definition of digital publishing. In the beginning of this project, Hart typed up many books, turning them into eBooks, by himself. Some examples of these texts include the Bible, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, pieces from Homer and Shakespeare and many others. Over the years volunteers would help him type up books which allowed the digital library to expand. It has been estimated that there are currently around 35,000 to 40,000 eBooks in the digital library today. Another unique aspect of this project is that you can find some of these eBooks in up to 60 different languages. This allows a wider audience to be able to successfully take advantage of this great invention by Hart.

I believe that Hart contributed to technology and the future in ways that he never had imagined. As we discussed today, as of 2012, eBook sales have surpassed hardcover book sales. EBooks are incredibly convenient because if you want to read a good book while you are at the beach, all you have to do is browse online and you can virtually find any book you are looking for. It has become even more convenient with the invention of the iPad and the kindle because you can carry these eBooks around with you at the palm of your hand without the extra weight of the actual printed book. Even college textbooks can be found as eBooks which definitely lightens the load in your backpacks. Now, the next question we always ask ourselves is “what is next to come?”