Digital Rights Management - DRM

Digital Rights Management (DRM) makes it easier for content providers to restrict the use of their content. The rights of media users are restricted to a specified period of time and a permissible environment (place, individual receiving equipment); the sharing of acquired content with third parties is also subject to limitations.

DRM is made possible by the transfer of so-called rights objects, which are irrevocably associated with content itself. As a result, these rights can be manipulated only with great effort – if at all – by third parties, e.g. hackers. The European Commission predicts that DRM technology will increasingly supplant the “copying levies” collected by special-purpose associations such as Germany’s GEMA.

Conventional encryption technology featuring conditional access (CA) merely grants content access to media users. In the case of DRM, however, the rights of use for content can be subdivided and further restricted. DRM processes are founded on CA techniques and rely on well-known CA mechanisms such as the Common Scrambling Algorithm (CSA).

Experts at IRT are well aware of the state of technical development regarding various DRM technologies currently on the market. As a result, our staff can forecast the impact which these products will have on future developments in broadcasting.

Most common DRM technologies

• Copy protection on DVDs and CDs

• HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) for television

• DTCP (Digital Transmission Content Protection) for Internet-based multimedia content

• Microsoft DRM in conjunction with Windows Media Players 10 and 11 for Internet-based multimedia content

• OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) for mobile communications