Editorial note: Corporations are inserting their DRM (digital rights management) technology onto CDs, DVDs, and secretly onto our hard drives. Consumers are often prevented from controlling, duping, or even routinely transferring songs and movies they've legitimately bought. We are spied on like criminals, while professional pirates routinely circumvent the controls. We've all been experiencing the frustration of these outrageous intrusions, but more of us need to understand how much DRM violates our basic privacy and consumer rights, and how much it is cramping the potential of the digital revolution. This article lays it bare. Read it. Share it.

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- Peter Lee, Disney Executive

If you aren't a card-carrying member of the Tin Foil Hat Brigade, then you probably haven’t been made familiar with Digital “Rights” Management, or DRM. The introductory quote, taken from a 2005 issue of The Economist, is a testament to the fact that DRM technology was not created in the interests of the end-user.

It was designed to assure the media monoliths that they won't lose any potential income because you’ve decided to burn your own copy of Hannah Montana rather than wait for the overly expensive, yet nicely packaged, DVD season editions.

From the Betamax Issue to the Digital Quandary

A few readers may recall the “Betamax case,” when Sony was sued by Universal Studios for manufacturing a device that could possibly be used for copyright infringement. Some years and a whole lot of legal mumbo jumbo later, Universal Studios lost the case and then whined for Congressional legislation that would protect them from the evils of home copying.

Happily, this idea did not pass with Congress, and I can only assume Congressmen were reluctant to set limitations on their own VCR use. Instead, a statutory royalty was attached to the sale of blank video tapes that was then distributed within the entertainment industry. It didn’t matter if one purchased the tapes to record Shaft or the purchaser’s own version of Afternoon Delight, the entertainment industry continued to profit.

However, with the advent of digital recording abilities, entertainment companies are quickly losing the royalty received from blank tape sales and are struggling to hold on to every potential greenback. While the industry hasn’t developed a way to profit from digital home recordings, it has developed nefarious DRM technologies.

DRM is a basic term for any technology used by copyright holders to control an end-user’s access and use of any digital data, software, or hardware. This type of technology basically forces a legitimate customer to follow the copyright holder’s perception of fair-use standards. Its abilities in restricting media piracy are about as effective as throwing a giant net over the ocean in an effort to capture Blackbeard.

Basically, a whole lot of innocent consumers are captured in a frustrating and potentially harmful snare while true media pirates run off laughing with a million stolen copies of Metallica’s Black album.

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