April 30, 2003

Where is DRM going?

After seeing the new Apple Music Store on the web today, I wanted to find out what other recent activity had been going on. I found an article on
Linux and DRM, and it seems that Linux embedded systems that implement DRM are getting Linus' tacit approval.
logo_drm.gif

I worry that this trend will push the content industry to put too much trust in DRM solutions, when in the long run, they will fail at a crucial moment. There have ready been a few famous failures (Adobe Ebook, DVD CSS, etc).

I personally favor forensic watermarking as a better solution to the problem. There was a recent white paper about how this might work written by Paul Kocher of Cryptography Research. I have also been looking at the watermarking software of Blue Spike for a while, and I still think that their technology is very good for protecting the rights of artists.

I just hope that the music industry is lumbering in the wrong direction, causing more harm to the public's perception of them as greedy old folk.


Posted by cyrus at April 30, 2003 11:44 AM | T r a c k B a c k
Copyright 1993-2005 Cyrus Shaoul