DRM: 3 definitions

So what is DRM (digital rights management)? Besides an irritation or worse to just about every user of digital media, in other words, just about everyone on the planet? Let’s look at what others think, first.

“Digital rights management (DRM) refers to technologies typically used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, and copyright holders to attempt to control how consumers access and use media and entertainment content.”
– Federal Trade Commission

“[Digital rights management (DRM)] should also be viewed as the technologies that facilitate broader consumer access to copyrighted works, and that reflect the parameters of the bargains entered into between owners of content and consumers who purchase access to it.”
– The Association of American Publishers (AAP),The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Brief filed in 2009 in response to the FTC’s definition DRM.

“Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies attempt to control what you can and can’t do with the media and hardware you’ve purchased.”
– Electronic Frontier Foundation

While the EFF definition might seem simplistic, it is essentially the same definition the FTC uses. Just not as verbose. The AAP, ESA, MPAA and RIAA want to add their own spin to the definition, focusing on supposed benefits of DRM, but at its core, DRM is about controlling “…what you can and can’t do with the media and hardware you’ve purchased.”

Is that necessary? Is it necessary to restrict users in their use of hardware and media?

[In the next post, a little history.]