New "Lightweight DRM" Proposal from Fraunhofer Institute

[Pat Logsdon]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62739,00.html' target='_blank'>http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/...2,62739,00.html</a><br /><br /></div>The Fraunhofer Institute has proposed a new digital rights management scheme that may actually please both consumers and record companies. <br /><br />"Like any other digital-rights system, it starts with a payment that gives consumers the right to use the song or video clip on their PC. But with LWDRM, from that point on consumers decide what may be done with it. They can copy the clip to another device like an MP3 player or distribute the file to a limited number of friends and relatives. <br /><br />In order to do so, the buyer has to download a digital certificate from a certification authority. The certificate attaches itself to the file like a watermark and records exactly what is done with it. Record companies will be able to fine-tune Fraunhofer's system to adjust how many people can copy or borrow the product."<br /><br />All that this seems to require is a) trustworthy third-party certifiers, b) buy-off from the record companies, c) buy-off from consumers. The impact it could have on P2P networks is also interesting. Could this be the final nail in the coffin of P2P systems? Do you think it'll even take off?

[Janak Parekh]

I'm already wary -- it puts parameters in the hands of the record companies. That, to me, might be dooming the project the moment it starts out of the gate. Consumers want consistent rules across record companies...

--janak

[sub_tex]

I still wouldn't use it. Like Janak said, keeps the control in the record companies' hands.

One day they'll stop treating paying customers like criminals. . . right? :roll:

[Kati Compton]

"Record companies will be able to fine-tune Fraunhofer's system to adjust how many people can copy or borrow the product."

Yeah... none. :roll:

This hints at one thing that I'd like in some future better DRM...

I have friends that live far far away. Some even in Canada :!: ;). And sometimes I'd like to play part or all of a song for them ("Yeah, you remember that song... here let me play it for you"). Not to "give" it to them, but to play it for them like I would if they were sitting next to me. The description here says that the DRM could support it, but since the record companies control the settings, I doubt they'd let us do that.

[Coordinator]

With such an obsession record companies have to control what I can or can not do with my data on my pc it is a good thing any DRM scheme is a technical impossibility.

[klinux]

Fraunhofer ... why do you even bother??? With the challenges of WMA, RA, OGG, AAC, LAME,, etc all saying they sound better than your MP3 codec, you focus on the thing that will make people like you less?

[jlp]

In fact MP3 Pro sounds pretty good as well.

But it happens 90+% of music files around these days are in MP3 format.

Plus this LWDRM is supposed to work with other formats, especially movies.

But you're all right, because editors will control what users can do it will be very restricted and vary from company to company and therefore be a PITA.

On a side note but very similar since it concerns another digital media format, ebooks, I just re-read this yesterday (something I saved to my PPC; emphasis added):

---------Quote---------
Windows Mobile for Pocket PC 2003 Walkthrough
http://www.mobilecomputingsig.com/2003/windowsmobile2003.htm

http://www.publishers.org/press/pdf/DRMWhitePaper.pdf
eBook Publishers Sickening Of DRM Too!
Posted by Ed Hansberry @ 04:00 PM


Publishers of ebooks are beginning to tire if the problems consumers are having with current DRM technologies. I presume this is mainly because consumers either don't buy the ebook because of the DRM hassle or they cost the publisher/retailer money in support calls working through the DRM hassle.



The Association of American Publishers Enabling Technologies Committee and the American Library Association Of Information Technology Policy issued a white paper in March of 2003 titled What Consumers Want In Digital Rights Management (DRM): Making Content as Widely Available as Possible In Ways that Satisfy Consumer Preferences, which you can download here (800K Adobe PDF file) and read the full report yourself. Areas the paper focused on included, but were not limited to:

• Ability to move content from one device to another
• Ability to transfer ebooks, either lending or donating, to another party
• Format interoperability
• Consistency of ebook reader's basic features
• User friendly libraries for consumers to keep their content

I love the first sentence of their recommendations. "The first generation of DRM products was designed to protect content. In many ways, it may do that too well." I'll say. Some implementations (*cough* DRM5 *cough*) protected content so well nobody could easily read the book. Let's hope something useful comes of this study.
---------Unquote---------

[Jonathan1]

Complexity == DOA

Why is this so hard for the music industry to understand? Apple's method that doesn't have to dick with certs just works by simply having a username password with which to auth a computer. Now take that one step further. What if iTunes allowed you to setup a username/password to allow your friend to sign in to use your music for say 7 days before it was revoked?

Again complexity is NOT a good thing.

[ctmagnus]

But it happens 90+% of music files around these days are in MP3 format.

I love getting the weekly radioshack flyer, on the front page of which you see MP3 at least four times (bold and italics included). Then I turn to the portable audio player page and see it at least six times! Just so they can get Joe Schmuck into their store so he can start napsterizing music as well.

(WMA, AAC, OGG, WAV et al usually get absolutely no mention in these flyers.)

[dean_shan]

The only music store that I am truly happy with is eMusic (http://www.emusic.com). They give you your music in MP3 format. No muss, no fuss. You can transfer your music to all your devices/computers with no nag or problem at all.

[klinux]

Mp3Pro is owned by Thomson, Inc. who licenses the MP3 portion from FH. In either case, MP3 needs to improve its codec rather than hinder it.

As Jonathan1 mentioned, Apple/Fairplay is easy to use and transparent to the user = good. It does not track you like how this LWDRM could potentially be used!