jshatt's posterous

DRM (Digital Rights Management) within the value chain

I would like to address this topic from the perspective of a artist and publisher. I have been in the music business for about 10 years. Throughout the years I have chose to remain independent as an artist as well as a music publisher and distributor. I have pushed myself to learn much more than most people would need to about the basics of distribution, being mostly digitally but recently film licensing basics as well. I am by no means an expert but I have tried to learn as much as I can through the experiences I have had.

What are the pros for someone like me... I would be able to better control the flow of my content through the internet which is my biggest channel of distribution. This would allow me to collect royalties from internet radio stations, to better control access and distribution, better monitoring of statistics, and to insure quality of content. This of course also applies to non digital content but it’s my personal belief that physical media is not here to stay to much longer as a large part of the value chain.

So what about the cons for someone like me... According to the Insight Corporation, companies have already spent well over a billion dollars researching DRM technologies. As a independent artist not only can I not afford not to pay for that kind of research but I also don’t want to pay royalties for use of their DRM technology. Other problems include, computer instabilities caused by DRM, exploitation through Trojans and other malicious back door style scripts, and of course a lack of compatibility in consumer and industry equipment. There is also the question of new creative arts such as music and video remixing and how this would be effected when users could no longer manipulate content they already payed for. There is also not yet been a DRM script that could not be cracked by hackers and therefor probably would allow for much exploitation.

A value chain created by the author

We are swiftly approaching a new medium in the world when it comes to video and audio content. While the entertainment industry struggles to keep a strangle hold on the market they only open more avenues for independent artists to create new and innovative value chains. As the battle for data continues by the entertainment industry they only have only succeeded in further alienating the consumer and artists alike. Many artists are already finding better ways of controlling and being payed for their content. A large portion of independent artists I know tend to give away most of their music for free under a Creative Commons License and make their money from merchandise and playing live. For promotion you will find them fueling their popularity through P2P (peer to peer) networks as well as social networks. There are also similar options for video artists.

I believe a author should be able to restrict how his content is used and distributed but I think DRM will never be viable solution. I think once companies start to recover from some of these disruptive innovations a new value chain can be created. Though I do not see this happening anytime soon I see DRM free music services such as Amazon filling the gaps until then. I believe the future will hold a socialized style audio and video system, data tracking through something as simple as a plugin is already available. We as Americans will probably be taxed or pay for a service that will allow us different types of rights granted from the publisher. Depending on downloads, plays, and the medium in which the content was used will determine the stipend the artist will receive.


Sources-


http://www.artistshousemusic.org/videos/file+sharing+pros+and+cons+for+indepe...
http://dhdeans.blogspot.com/2007/03/pros-and-cons-of-drm-protection.html
http://www.insight-corp.com/reports/WWD.asp

Image source-
http://www.sevensheaven.nl/

 

Statistics for the number of unauthorized intrusions into computer systems last year.

I am very disappointed by the lack of information and the lack of statistics for this. With intrusion prevention software being a big part of IS market I find it ridiculous that no one seems to be showing any real stats or approximations based on facts. According to FBI this is the second largest type of computer attack with viral worms being number one. This was taken from a 2005 FBI briefing but there does not seem to be anything newer. Seems strange to me that every source says that these attacks are growing each year but no one seems to have a source. Sure, going on that there is more and more users every year this makes sense but I can’t find any facts about it.

According to what I could find on recent attacks, banks seem to be a big target but there are no stats of who is doing the attacking. According to the Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section at United States Department of Justice most of the prosecuted case details are totally private. So I could not find much there of real use either. Maybe some real numbers can be released eventually, maybe it is due to fear from institutions coming forward to admit there are intruders in their systems.

Sources-
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=01501762
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/02/banks_losses_from_computer...
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/cccases.html
http://www.gocsi.com/press/20050714.jhtml

Filed under  //   DRM   Digital Rights Management   Publishing   Socialism