Foresights
Digital rights management
What is it?
Digital rights management (DRM) is a combination of the technology and business processes that enable the persistent control of, and charging for, digital content.
The flexibility of the digital medium allows for easier copying, faster delivery and little loss in quality. Highly publicized clashes between the music and film industries and P2P networks supporting the exchange of copyright material, for example, Napster and KaZaA have emphasized the need for DRM as a means of protecting revenues for content providers.
There are two main approaches to DRM, encryption and digital watermarking:
- encryption – digital content is delivered in an encrypted form that can be unlocked only after the user has purchased a ‘key’
- watermarking – involves inserting throughout a digital file a pattern of bits that holds the rights information, which is read by DRM software.
 To learn more about Digital rights management, download our full Foresight PDF file ( 301Kb; opens in a new window).
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