[DMCA-Activists] What Does DRM Really Mean?

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from DMCA Discussion list)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [DMCA_Discuss] What Does DRM Really Mean?
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 16:17:45 +0400
From: Vladimir Katalov <address@hidden>
Organization: ElcomSoft Co.Ltd.
To: address@hidden


April 8, 2003
What Does DRM Really Mean? 
By Brett Glass


> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,942369,00.asp


Introduction

- You start up a DVD movie and before the film starts, you encounter an
annoying advertisement. But when you try to fast-forward past the
commercial, your player does not respond.

- You can play your new audio CD on your stereo system, but when you insert
it into the CD drive on your Macintosh computer, the CD doesn't work. Worse
still, the machine crashes and refuses to reboot. The disc remains stuck in
the drive until you force the tray open by inserting a paper clip.

- You try to reinstall your tax preparation software on the new PC you just
bought, but it comes up in a "trial" mode: You can't file or print your
return—unless you pay for the product again.

- You want to time-shift a TV program for later viewing, but your digital
video recorder detects a signal known as the broadcast flag in the program
and won't record it.

- You buy an e-book and discover you can read it on-screen but can't print a
chapter, even though the book is by Dickens and entered the public domain
more than a century ago.

In each of these scenarios, you've run headlong into digital rights
management (DRM). So far, such measures have halted few of us in our tracks.
But in the future, as DRM becomes increasingly widespread, situations like
those mentioned above may be all too common. Here we explain what DRM is
about, how it's done, and what the future is likely to hold. And because
this is such a big and complex subject, we provide lots of URLs with
pointers to additional information.

What is DRM?

Broadly speaking, digital rights management—which frustrated users often dub
digital restriction management or digital roadblock management—has come to
mean any technological measure that attempts to restrict what users can do
with software or data.

Ironically, the alternative designations seem more accurate than the
official one. Why? Because the word rights implies that these measures are
enforcing legal rights that belong to a publisher or owner of intellectual
property. The publishers and creators of intellectual property, including
software, movies, and music, have rights that can and should be enforced.

In general, however, the purpose of DRM is to prevent people—via
technological means—from using copyrighted material in ways that the
publisher does not want them to use it. And in some countries, including the
United States, bypassing DRM is almost always a crime, no matter how
unreasonable the restrictions it imposes.

Is DRM copy protection?

Yes and no. The range of activities DRM may allow or disable goes much
farther than copying. For example, DRM may allow you to make as many copies
of a software program as you want—but to install that program only on a
limited number of computers. Or it might let you make copies of audio or
video content, but only at low quality.

The controversial DRM included with the 2002 version of Intuit's Quicken
TurboTax lets you copy the disc, but the program comes with a product key
that can be used only once without express permission from the company.
(After you use the key, you can install only a crippled version of the
program on other machines. That version lets you prepare a return but
doesn't let you print or file it.) Thus, in many cases, copying is allowed
but other activities are prohibited or limited.

How does DRM work?

DRM works in many ways, depending on the medium and the types of
restrictions the publisher wishes to impose. We can't possibly cover all of
the techniques, but here's an overview of the technologies used in DRM
systems.   Old-fashioned software copy protection, such as that used in the
original Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program, makes floppy disks uncopyable by
recording them in ways that an ordinary floppy disk drive can't duplicate.
Many such systems require that a key —usually a special floppy disk or a
dongle that attaches to a serial, parallel, or USB port—be present before
the software will run.

Such schemes are generally not objectionable to users as long as the keys
aren't fragile or likely to be damaged or destroyed (as was the case with
the Lotus floppy disks). These schemes are easily broken, however, and in
the early days of computing, quite a number of companies specialized in
providing workarounds for them. (As we'll explain shortly, such workaround
products are now illegal to manufacture or to own—even if you're
legitimately concerned that a key might be destroyed.)

More recent software copy protection mechanisms, such as Macrovision's
SafeCast and Microsoft Product Activation for Windows and Office, rely on
the Internet, allowing machines to ask permission from a central server
before installing or running software. There's usually a backup mechanism,
which lets users who don't have Internet access obtain keys by phone. Some
let you use a product for a short period, but they will block access if you
don't register with the company within a few days or weeks.

An access control scheme for DVDs called DivX likewise required you to get
permission by phone before you could watch the program on the disc. The
format, promoted by Circuit City, failed even after the chain offered
heavily discounted players for it; consumers rejected the notion of paying
each time they wanted to watch discs they had purchased. It also raised
privacy concerns, because the publisher of a particular movie would know
every time you watched it.

DRM systems for multimedia often encrypt material in such a way that only a
particular device can play or retrieve it, enforcing constraints on how it
is used. DVDs are a good example. They use an encryption scheme—recently
broken by Norwegian teenager "DVD Jon" Johansen—to prevent users from
viewing discs on unauthorized players. The authorized players are required,
by licenses granted to the manufacturers, to prevent users from skipping
commercials. Johansen was prosecuted (and eventually acquitted under
Norwegian law) for breaking the DVD encryption scheme and publishing DeCSS,
a program that allows DVDs to be played on unauthorized equipment.

Contrary to what DVD publishers claimed, Johansen's program did not permit
the copying of DVDs. Users could already copy encrypted data bit by bit
without deciphering it. But DeCSS did pave the way for creating unauthorized
players and bypassing mechanisms such as region coding, which prevents discs
sold in one part of the world from being used on players sold in another
part. In short, Johansen was prosecuted not for enabling illegal copying but
for allowing users to do what they wanted with copies they had legally
purchased. Although Johansen was acquitted, many others who posted or even
linked to versions of his program were successfully prosecuted in the United
States under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (discussed below).

Other DRM systems use digital watermarks—a form of steganography—to label
data as belonging to a particular publisher or having come from a particular
place. Hardware or software can use a watermark to decide whether to process
the data and whether to trace the piracy of a product to the source.
Broadcasters and publishers have lobbied for the creation of a mandatory
broadcast flag—a signal hidden in television and other broadcasts that shuts
down any device that attempts to record a program. A law would then require
recording devices to obey the signal.

Other DRM systems work by trying to confuse or disable equipment that may do
undesired things with content. For example, some audio-CD copy protection
systems work by creating a disc that is intentionally faulty. The CD player
in most stereo systems will ignore the errors, but they could throw
computers, which are more finicky, into a tizzy.

Philips, the company that invented the formats used by CDs and CD-ROMs, has
attempted to block the creation of faulty discs by denying publishers the
use of the CD trademark (which manufacturers can use only on discs that meet
Philips' standards). But publishers nonetheless persist, even though the
discs have been known to lock up computers. Ironically, clever consumers
have discovered that a carefully positioned sticky note or a mark made by a
felt-tip pen can defeat many such schemes.

In February 2003, Microsoft proposed a hybrid analog/digital DRM system for
CDs that combines the techniques described above (to prevent the playing of
converted analog tracks on computers) with the digital anticopying
technology recently added to Windows Media Player.

More ambitious DRM proposals would put legally mandated copy protection on
every computer's hard drive and other components, or make it impossible to
tap into an unencrypted stream of data, even one that flows from your hard
drive (or the Internet) to your display and speaker. An example of the
latter is Microsoft Secure Audio Path, which embeds DRM deep within the
Windows operating system.

Some forms of DRM, by contrast, rely on much simpler physical or chemical
mechanisms. Disposable DVDs, for example, start to decay gradually when
removed from their packages and exposed to air, becoming unviewable in two
or three days. Such discs have been proposed as an alternative to video
rentals, though environmentalists have raised concerns about the impact of
large numbers of nonbiodegradable polycarbonate discs on landfills.

Is circumventing DRM really against the law?

In an increasing number of countries, the answer is yes. In the United
States, a law was recently passed that forbids any means of getting past all
forms of DRM. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 states that "no
person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls
access to a work protected under [copyright law]." Some very narrow
exceptions are made, but for the most part, trying to dodge DRM systems—even
when the restrictions imposed are not reasonable—is a criminal offense. The
sale of hardware or software whose purpose is to help you get around DRM is
likewise illegal.

What may be of even greater concern is some of the DMCA's unintended
consequences. Researchers such as Ed Felten at Princeton University have
been deterred from publishing research papers describing DRM technology
after receiving threats of lawsuits from companies claiming that their
papers would aid and abet those who sought to defeat the restrictions. And
because so many products now contain microprocessors and copyrighted
computer code, companies such as Lexmark and The Chamberlain Group (a maker
of garage door openers) have used the DMCA to sue to prevent the sale of
compatible third-party products. (The plaintiffs claim that by bypassing
measures they've taken to prevent the creation of compatible products,
competitors have violated the DMCA.)

How does DRM affect me?

Depending on what products you use and how you intend to use them, you may
or may not see a great impact from DRM—at first. But you may begin to feel
that DRM has gone too far as restrictions become tighter, blocking you from
doing things you feel you have a right to do or violating your privacy by
insisting you identify yourself before you do them, or extracting more money
from you before you proceed. It's important that you as a consumer keep
informed about DRM. That way, you can use your feet, your wallet, and your
vote to ensure that the roadblocks imposed by DRM don't keep you from going
where you want to go.

For Further Reading Online

"A Bad, Sad Hollywood Ending?" by Jane Black
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2002/tc20020515_8741.htm

"Buy, Use, Dispose," by Amanda Onion
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/disposable021204.html

"Copy-Protected Discs May Cause Mac Booting Problem," by Will Knight
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992271

Digital Rights Management and Privacy
http://www.epic.org/privacy/drm

"DMCA Used In Garage Door Battle," by Brett Glass
http://www.extremetech.com/dmcagarage

EFF "Intellectual Property—Video and DVD" Archive
http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/DeCSS_prosecutions/

EFF Overview of Broadcast Protection Discussion Group
http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/HDTV/20020117_eff_bpdg_overview.html

Final Joint Version of H.R. 2281, DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act),
Oct. 20, 1998
http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/DMCA/hr2281_dmca_law_19981020_pl105-304.html

"Hide in Plain Sight," by Brett Glass
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,543491,00.asp

"Is the Marketplace Working to Protect Digital Creative Works?" by Hilary
Rosen
http://www.riaa.org/pdf/JudiciaryHearingTestimony3-14-02.pdf

"Lexmark Sues to Shut Down Competitor with DMCA," by Brett Glass
http://www.extremetech.com/dmcalexmark

"Philips Says Copy-Protected CDs Have No Future," by Will Knight
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991783

"Piracy Hurts Everyone Both Online and Offline," by Rep. Ed Towns
http://www.thehill.com/052202/ss_towns.shtm

RIAA/SDMI Legal Threat Letter (April 9, 2001)
http://www.eff.org/Legal/Cases/Felten_v_RIAA/20010409_riaa_sdmi_letter.html

"Sony's Latest CD Copy Protection Comes Unstuck," by Will Knight
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992294

"TurboTax Test Results Uncover Real Problems," by Brett Glass
http://www.extremetech.com/taxproblems

"2002: The Year in Technology," by Will Knight
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993215

Understanding the Secure Audio Path Model
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/wmrm/htm/understandingthesecureaudiopathmodel.asp

Unintended Consequences: Four Years Under the DMCA
http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/DMCA/20030102_dmca_unintended_consequences.html

"What Hollings' Bill Would Do," by Declan McCullagh
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51275,00.html

What is Windows Media DRM
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/wm7/drm/what.aspx

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