Article 1

DRM debate gets louder

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207400097

This article seems to be about a debate between the MPAA, (Jim Barton), IP Lawyer Fred Von Lohmann, and many more. Von Lohmann says "Don't be fooled. The only reason we don't have interoperability is because of DRM." When DRM was compared to inputting a password at the ATM he said: "Of course they don't mind the password at the ATM," replied von Lohmann. "What I would mind is a set of restrictions on what I can do with my money after I've received it from the bank." He said that such constraints are the essence of DRM. The claim is that if the content provided legitimately is better in quality or quantity than the content that is illegitimate, people will almost always go with the higher quality for the price. That's their solution to getting rid of DRM - providing content that the pirates can't keep up with or replicate.

In our lectures we talked a lot about DRM and pros and cons for each. I'm against DRM, but that last statement in the last paragraph appears to be a huge contradiction. DRM is in place to keep pirates from copying their work, or at least degrade it a sufficient amount to make it undesirable. I'm not saying that DRM has protected it by any amount, but I'm not sure anyone could lead the MPAA to believe that providing no protection will in fact protect them less than no protection.

Article 2

Widevine and Microsoft team up for DRM on Silverlight

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Stewart/?p=814

I've never been very excited about silverlight (Microsoft's new competitor to flash player). Things are starting to look even worse. Microsoft is working with Widevine to create DRM enforcement embedded within silverlight. The article says that this DRM will be similar to the DRM built into Windows Media Player. The DRM will be able to enforce music, video, flash, and more. By popular demand, Adobe apparently has some dealings with DRM embedding in their flash player as well. There have been third party plug ins out for awhile to DRMize flash player, but I guess Adobe would like a cut of that pie now.

Why do people (businesses) keep thinking that DRM is a good idea? As outlined in the lectures and readings, DRM stifles growth and in general the digital economy. Studies have shown that selling DRM free music has literally boomed the digital music industry.

Article 3

This week in PDF: PDF Office Suite and details on Acrobat 9 released

http://www.planetpdf.com/enterprise/article.asp?ContentID=This_week_in_PDF_-_PDF_Office_Suite_and_details_on_Acrobat_9_released&gid=7674

Completely unrelated to DRM (but mentioned in the article) Corel has released their newest clone to Microsoft Office, WordPerfect Office X4, which claims to be a PDF office suite. Also, Adobe is expected to release Adobe Acrobat 9 before too long.

In more relevant news, GigaTrust is releasing a program called "GigaTrust Adobe Protector" which converts the pdf of a rms format when the person downloads it, and converts it back to pdf when the user uploads to a sharepoint website. This software is supposed to integrate directly with Microsoft's sharepoint services. "The product will form part of the Intelligent Rights Management family designed to extend the Microsoft RMS platform from June, 2008."

I remember a long time a go (and recently) in class we discussed ebook and pdf DRM. It enables authors to set it so that only a certain number of pages (if any) can be printed, and under what conditions the document is distributed. I wonder if they convert documents that already have DRM on them. As we talked about in class last time, that would be illegal and the company could be busted like the countless number of DVD ripping software companies.