Information Technology Reference
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screen but not movie screen) or how many times
a song may be played on a computer.
The combination of the type of rights and at-
tributes of these rights enable new ways to control
access to and the usage of digital content. This
in turn enables new business models, such as
superdistribution. For example, in June 2002 IBM
worked with Spero Communications and other
companies to launch a free promotional CD of the
rock band, Oasis. Nearly two million newspaper
readers in the United Kingdom received the CD.
It contained music and video tracks from the
band's forthcoming album and was distributed a
week before the album's release. The CD allowed
consumers to prelisten to three of the album's new
tracks on their personal computer, and a DRM
restricted play access to the one-week period
before the album's launch.
Table 3 shows that DRM has the potential to
overcome some of the weaknesses of centralized
P2P networks by offering additional security and
control. The next section presents the marriage
of P2P networks and DRM which should enable
content providers to overcome the three main
hurdles for the successful distribution of digital
music.
dIgItal musIc dIstrIButIon:
the next generatIon
Introduction
Peer-to-peer is not only fundamental to the archi-
tecture of today's Internet, but it is showing the
directions in the future evolution of networking
(O'Reilly, 2001). Therefore, content providers
should learn to exploit those networks instead
of spending large amount of resources on lobby-
ing for legislation that would ban them (Gayer,
2002). If content providers want to produce music
that cannot be copied, they have to make music
that cannot be heard (Alexander, 2002). In ad-
dition, file sharing systems might well continue
advantages and disadvantages of
drm
After defining what a DRM is and outlining the
key components and technologies used, the following
table summarizes the main advantages and disadvan-
tages of the usage of DRM for digital music.
Table 3. Advantages and disadvantages of DRMS
Advantages of DRM
Disadvantages of DRM
• DRM enables to protect the intellectual property of content
creators or artists.
• DRM protects and controls the access to and usage of digital
content (e.g., tracking of content through the life cycle)
(Bechtold, 2002).
• DRM ensures the authenticity and integrity of digital music
(e.g., prevent manipulation) (Bechtold, 2002).
• Consumers have to pay only for the effective usage of the
content (e.g., pay-per-view, pay-per-listen) (Pack, 2001).
• DRM enables easy cross selling.
• DRM automates the “rights management” faced by content
providers in the digital environment.
• DRM enables new business opportunities and business models
such as superdistribution (Cox, 2002).
• Current DRM improved significantly in the areas of usability,
flexibility, and security compared with first generation DRM.
• DRM needs also to protect the rights of consumers and privacy
(Cope & Freeman, 2001).
• Restricting innovation, research.
• Restricting access to digital content. As no access to digital
content is possible except by copying and complete control of
copying would mean control of access (Fetscherin, 2002).
• Inoperability issues (e.g., across media, functions, levels of
metadata, technology platforms) (Cope & Freeman, 2001).
• DRM is conceptually simple but extremely difficult to implement
(Mulholland, 2001).
• Copyright in the physical world has never sought to capture,
register, and take commercial benefits from every use of every
part of every creation work ever produced (Cope & Freeman,
2001).
• Pirated copies could sometimes, as in the software industry,
serve as a positive marketing tool (Hui, 2002).
 
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