Journal of Intellectual Property Rights Vol 9, July 2004, pp 313-331

Digital Rights Management: An Integrated Secure Digital Content Distribution Technology P Ghatak, R C Tripathi, A K Chakravarti Department of Information Technology, Electronics Niketan, 6, CGO Complex, New Delhi-110 003 Received 5 December 2003

The ability to distribute copyrighted works in digital form through high capacity prere- corded disks (CD ROMs, DVDs etc.) and Internet-enabled transmissions have brought new challenges to the protections of such content from unauthorized copying and use. Technological advancements in this regard are reviewed. Despite the ease with which digital content owners can now transfer data, images, music, video and multimedia documents across the Internet, cur- rent technology does not let them protect their rights to the works, which has resulted into wide- spread music and video piracy. In fact, although the Internet permits widespread dissemination of digital content, the easy-to-copy nature of digital data limits content owners’ willingness to distribute their documents electronically. Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology is a key enabler for the distribution of digital content. DRM refers to protecting ownership/copyright of electronic content by restricting the extent of usage an authorized recipient is allowed in re- gard to that content. DRM technology has historically been viewed as the methodology for the protection of digital media copyrights. But DRM technology products can be leveraged to ad- dress much larger issues, including the control of rights and usage permissions of content and digital information. DRM presents the opportunity to package, price, distribute and sell content in many new ways that have never been possible before. The paper discusses about the digital medium, digital watermarking, copy protection techniques (CPT), important legal developments and issues, court cases, DRM applications, DRM technology overviews, and DRM enabling technologies and standardization. It also discusses about the initiative taken by the Department of Information Technology for a watermarking project.

Keywords: Digital medium, digital watermarking, copy protection techniques, information and communication technology

The rapid development of Information phenomena into digitized information, and Communication Technology (ICT) which can be shared and exchanged by and ICT–based business in recent years, the people all over the world by means of together with the advent of Internet has computer networks. This ability to dis- created electronic marketplaces with new tribute copyrighted content in digital form technological, social, management and through Internet-enabled transmissions organizational issues. The progress of has brought new challenges to the protec- ICT has made it possible to convert all tion of such content and information from

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unauthorized use and copying. When CDs neration for the use of their content − but were first marketed in the mid-1980s, what is the reasonable charge for different consumer digital recording of any kind categories of contents to different class of was fair enough to be a commodity of the users is a debatable matter. Thus, the future and the implications of unprotected need for a DRM system that protects in- content were barely considered. No one tellectual property rights (IPR) in open had visualized the current pervasiveness network environments continues to grow. of the Internet. DRM systems are explicitly modeled on Despite the ease with which digital the copyright system which has always data owners can now transfer multimedia been a legal regime embedded in a tech- documents across the Internet, current nological system like the printing press technology does not let them protect their and the analog and digital media1. rights to the works. Today, there is no universally compatible, standard means The Digital Medium of ensuring that the people who bring Intellectual property is complementary about the creative works − the artists, the to technology. It is an area of law that musicians, the producers, the distributors, evolves with the development of technol- the broadcasters − get their fair share of ogy to fulfill the social, political and eco- user’s money, every time a user obtains a nomic needs. The emerging ICT, conver- piece of their work. There is not even an gence of information technology and agreement as to how many times one telecommunication along with the in- should pay for ‘content’: once per view- creasing use of computers and communi- ing (listening), once per person, once per cation technology have given rise to digi- household, or once for everyone in the tal economy. The new economy is chang- household. ing the way the products are created, the Meanwhile, the technology needed to nature of products themselves and how deliver that content − movies, audio they are distributed and transacted. The tracks, TV shows, multimedia − is taking ease with which authored works in digital off to new heights. Obviously, the wide- form can be currently replicated poses a spread dissemination of these technical difficult problem for the law to handle2. advances that could boost both the con- In the existing copyright regime, making sumer electronics and communications of copies for personal or private use industry is being held back by the inher- without permission from the copyright ently different goals of the product and holder is considered ‘fair use’ and lawful. content creators. The consumer electron- Two factors limited the proliferation of ics industry wants abundant content to be analog copies − they had to be distributed readily and cheaply available to drive the on physical media, and the tape hiss and sale of the new products needed to other noise introduced by the copying download, record, and play it. The enter- meant that none was even as good as the tainment people deservedly want remu- original. Copies of copies are close to

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unbearable. Since in the digital domain, of materials. This has led to development perfect multiple copies can be generated, of elaborate systems with access restric- it becomes even more difficult for the tions and regulations, which in turn, has copyright owners to exercise control over thrown up issues of right to regulate, who replication of their works and seek com- should regulate, types of rights to be con- pensation for unauthorized replication. trolled and kinds of access to information On the other hand, the digital medium sources3. also provides a lot of scope for using re- Digital transmission of copyrighted stricting technologies like digital water- works has enabled new services in the marking, encryption, password protection form of specialized news and data ser- etc. against illegal copying of copyrighted vices, commercial online services, video- material and commercial misuse of on-demand, web casting and TV music works. services. All these services function Another characteristic of digital me- wholly or partially with Internet as the dium that poses problem for IPR system delivery medium. With regard to copy- is the ease with which digital works can right, these services differ from the be transmitted and used by multiple users. broadcasting and other delivery mecha- A pirated version of a digital work (data, nisms of the past, as there may be no music, video, multimedia, software, etc.) broadcaster involved. A wide variety of can be loaded into a computer connected works and services are made available on to a network of computers or Internet and a server of the service provider for inter- transmitted to multiple users for simulta- active access and use at the time deter- neous viewing and use of the same copy. mined by the user. The amount of trans- Digital compression or compactness is mission traffic handled by telecommuni- another characteristic of digital media, cation carriers for such interactive ser- which has potential to create new kinds of vices has increased dramatically in recent legal problems. In comparison to print years. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other traditional analog media, com- provide a link between users and the tele- pressed digital works, like compressed communication carrier, making the digital zip files, MP3 music, MPEG videos, architecture more complex. When a user JPEG pictures etc. do not take much looks at the information on an Internet space and hence such works are inher- site, the copy being viewed is merely one ently easier to steal. While the compact- that was made by the web site owners and ness of digital media makes it possible to transmitted to the user upon request from put company records, whole libraries, browser through HTTP and TCP/IP. In encyclopedias, music, videos, photo- this case, copyright infringement issue graphs etc. in a set of CD-ROMs, DVDs, becomes irrelevant because no one other hard disks, some new kinds of IPR related than the copyright owner reproduced cop- law problems hitherto unheard of in the ies, prepared derivative works, distributed traditional print and analog world are copies, as prescribed by the copyright likely to result from these new assemblies laws. But for a user to be able to view the

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work that was transmitted to the user’s data in the protected form, the watermark browser from the web site, a copy may remains in the content in its original form have been created that resides at least and does not prevent a user from listening temporarily in the RAM of the user’s to, viewing, examining, or manipulating computer. Also multiple copies of the the content. Also unlike the idea of steg- work may be made at the intermediate anography, where the method of hiding machines as it travels from source to des- the message may be secret and the mes- tination. Effective copyright protection sage itself is secret, in watermarking typi- cannot be relegated to the point where cally the watermark embedding process is content is on the transmission path of the known and the message (except for the Internet and the solution to copyrights in use of a secret key) does not have to be the digital medium must be independent secret. Watermarking is the direct em- of the internal architecture of the Internet. bedding of additional information into the Digital medium is essentially technology original content or host signal. driven and the IPR regulatory regime3 Ideally, there should be no perceptible must conform to the fast changing tech- difference between the watermarked and nology and hence must remain flexible, original signal and the watermark should broad and technology – neutral to an ex- be difficult to remove or alter without tent possible. damaging the host signal. Applications of digital watermarking include copyright protection, fingerprint- Digital Watermarking ing, authentication, copy control, tamper Digital watermarking is a technique detection and data hiding applications that enables information to be embedded such as broadcast monitoring. Water- within digital content4. This information marking algorithms have been proposed could be, for example, the copyright for still images, audio, video, graphics, holder’s identity or licence rules that ap- text and multimedia. Requirements and ply to the content. Unlike encryption, design of watermarking techniques are which is useful for transmission but does impacted by the different types of content not provide a way to examine the original in two major ways: imperceptibility and

Fig. 1 — Block diagram of a watermarking system4

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robustness. For the digital medium where marks are transparent to consumers and to thousands of content providers wishing to the software in existing content delivery protect digital content after it has been systems so that they can be used with delivered to consumers, the main applica- minimal impact on any existing system. tion of watermarking is in embedding Recognizing that both analog and digi- information within content to allow ille- tal signals must be protected, copy pro- gal copying and distribution to be de- tection technical group (formed in 1996 tected. For this application, watermarks to explore techniques for protecting DVD need to be ‘robust’ in that it should not be content and composed of members of the possible for consumers to remove the wa- MPAA, ITIC, CEA & RIAA as well as termark without harming the quality of law firms and technology watchdog or- the content so much that it becomes ganizations) has for the last few years worthless. This implies that the water- been exploring watermarking technology. mark must be embedded throughout the But watermarking has proven to be a content; otherwise just the part containing complex issue, and, despite many tests, the watermark could be removed. Some the group has not yet decided on a single typical distortions or attacks that digital technique6. Two proposals are being watermarking schemes are expected to evaluated by the watermark group, com- survive include resampling, rescaling, posed of Digimarc, Hitachi, Macrovision, compression, linear and non-linear filter- NEC, Philips, Pioneer, Sony and Toshiba. ing, additive noise, A/D and D/A conver- These propose longer encryption keys up sion and transcoding. In applications of to a key length of 56 bits for protecting copyright protection, each copy gets a both recordable and pre-recorded media, unique watermark to identify the end-user and for making the key harder to break. so that tracing is possible for cases of il- New technology introduced by the group legal use, and for authentication, where includes the media key block. This makes the watermark can represent a signature it possible to revoke compromised keys and copy control for digital recording separately and without damage to the to- devices5. Here the technical challenge is tal encryption system. Another technique to provide transparency and robustness, is actually an off-disc scheme, a transmis- which are conflicting requirements. Ide- sion line protection system called digital ally, an effective, robust watermarking transmission content protection. In final- scheme provides a mark that can only be izing the technology, group members removed when the original content too is have also to compare the cost of imple- destroyed. Typically, many of the appli- mentation with its effectiveness in block- cations for copyright protection involve ing copying. Still, it is difficult to reach a relatively high quality of original content consensus. and the imperceptibility criterion is criti- cal for such applications. An important Copy Protection Techniques (CPT) advantage of using robust, transparent The CD audio format was invented by watermarking for DRM is that the water- Sony Corp (Tokyo) and Royal Philips

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Electronics, NV (Amsterdam, Nether- This data is displayed by the players and lands) in the late 1970s as a replacement allows seeking a specific time position. for vinyl records. Although it stores audio There are two special regions: the lead-in in digital form, CD audio format makes area before the first track and the lead-out no provisions for data applications. In the area after the last one. These consist of early 1980s, compact disc read only several empty frames that contain no au- memory (CD-ROM) was developed to dio but may include subchannel data de- specify discs that could be accessed from scribing the rest of the disc. The Q sub- a computer and store data as well as au- channel in the lead-in area holds a table dio. Recordable and rewritable CD for- of contents (TOC) specifying the number mats (CD-R, CD-RW) were finally cre- of tracks, their starting positions, and ated in late 1980s and early 1990s after whether each contains audio or data. This which the momentum on copying the is the basic CD format understood by CD discs began to build. One of the factors audio players and CD-ROM drives. The the companies focused on first for copy CD-R and CD-RW writable disc formats protection was the original standard that have more complicated structures. CD-R defined the CD audio format in 1980, media cannot be erased, so the standards known as Red Book. This has only one were designed to allow data to be written provision that allows for copy protection, incrementally until the whole disc is the serial copy management system. This filled. consists of a few copy-generation control In the absence of any consensus on bits slipped into the digital stream. In- copy protection technology, several re- tended to prevent digital audiotape (DAT) cord labels and third parties have inde- recorders from making copies of copies, pendently developed a family of copy- it has no effect on PCs. prevention techniques for CDs and The information stored on a compact DVDs. In general, these work by intro- disc is organized into functional units ducing intentional errors into the audio called tracks. A typical audio CD con- data or other structures on compact discs tains one audio track for each song, and a when they are manufactured. The errors CD-ROM disc contains both audio and are carefully designed to ensure that the data tracks. Tracks are subdivided into discs work correctly in almost all CD blocks called frames, which hold 1/75 players but are unusable in most PCs. All second of audio or around 2048 bytes of the protection systems used today exploit digital data along with error correction several key differences between audio bits. Multiplexed with main data stream players and the CD-ROM drives of com- in each frame are eight subchannels. Only puters. The goal is to prevent the unre- two subchannels, designated P and Q, are stricted reading of audio data to PC. Au- commonly used. The P subchannel marks dio players, for instance, interpolate over the current track number, the track type data-read errors, such as those caused by (audio or data), and the time signature of scratches, making it possible for copy the frame relative to the start of the disc. protection schemes to introduce correct-

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able errors that shouldn’t be audible, but the audio at a greatly reduced bit rate, and confuse CD-ROM drives. Such drives do will not let anyone copy it. not interpolate over errors; their primary Other copy protection schemes, like use, storing computer files and applica- Macrovision’s SafeAudio, alter the Reed- tions, requires essentially perfect recov- Solomon error-correcting codes normally ery of recorded data. When reading audio used to ensure accurate data recovery. discs, they extract the data, byte by byte, The alterations cause most CD-ROM even if it is an error. If lots of errors ac- drives to reject the related pieces of data. crue, the result is badly flawed, unlis- Playability is again at issue because CD tenable music file ⎯ exactly what the players vary widely in their ability to ac- record labels want if a CD is copied. cept apparently bad data. Some will play Adding deliberate errors to the CD master a flawed CD just fine, some will mute would seem to be a perfect solution since during extended interpolation attempts, it can be done within Red Book frame- and some will give up and quit. Adding work. But if enough errors are introduced errors may also shorten life of a CD be- to ruin CD-ROM-drive ripping, the inter- cause it reduces the capacity of players to polation may become audible on CD interpolate over errors from accumulated players. In fact, if a CD bears enough bad dirt and scratches. With Macrovision’s data, the player may mute, skip, or even recent acquisition of Midbar Tech, stop. So a balance must be struck between SafeAudio is being supplanted by Cactus playability and protection. Data Shield. While Cactus also introduces some errors, it flags them as control data, A copy protection device now com- making them a little less likely to damage monly being used is the Cactus Data because control data can more easily be Shield, produced by Midbar Tech (Tel ignored when playing a CD than can au- Aviv, Israel, now a subsidiary of Macro- dio bits. vision Corp, Santa Clara, California, Sony Corp, which co-established Red USA). To obstruct ripping from too many Book, also offers Key2Audio copy pro- errors, Cactus alters the CD’s table of tection system. While promising no contents (TOC), which points the player changes to the audio bit stream, and thus to the individual tracks, in ways espe- no audio degradation, Key2Audio relies cially difficult for CD-ROM drives to on a separate data session and some fid- resolve. Cactus also adds a data “ses- dling with the disc’s TOC to confuse PCs. sion”, an extra track that only CD-ROM But early versions of Cactus and drives will find. When one tries to play Key2Audio have been thwarted by users the CD on a computer’s drive, the altera- who obscured the data session, which is tions to the TOC make software players near the edge of the disc, simply by like Windows Media Player unable to scribbling over it with a felt-tip pen. To locate the first audio track, causing the prevent further manipulation, both Mid- PC to load a proprietary player contained bar and Sony have new versions of their in the data session. That player will play products that make the line between the

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data and audio sessions visually indistin- user, it also provides strong copy protec- guishable, so that the data session cannot tion for the music industry. To combat the be easily marked. A new entrant into the problem of music piracy, SACD used a fray is Microsoft Corp (Redmond, Wash- set of complementary means of visible ington, USA) with its new second session and invisible security to ensure that the technology. This adds an extra data ses- content of SACD is very well protected. sion containing Windows Media Player SACD does not rely in any means on au- files and a set of rules for their use. dio watermarking. The most apparent anti Still, given the open nature of Red piracy measure is the inability of existing Book’s digital audio, and the widespread PC disc drives to read data from an file swapping on the Internet, it’s unlikely SACD disc. This is enabled by scram- that today’s music can be protected. It bling of the lead-in data area using a takes only one person with a digital CD technique called “SACD Mark”. Assum- player-to-PC connection to rip songs and ing one would succeed in reading the spread them around. And, of course, all SACD data, the data cannot be used, not these protection methods address only even after a bit-identical copy has been digital data streams. A good analog trans- made. When an SACD disc is inserted in fer, easily made by connecting a CD a player, the player searches for an invisi- player’s audio outputs to a computer ble (physical watermark). This pit signal sound card’s audio inputs, sounds indis- processing physical disc mark (PSP- tinguishable from the original. It creates a PDM) is required to start playback and to swappable file that neatly bypasses all the descramble the audio content. Since exist- schemes. ing consumer recorders cannot write a New standards, like DVD-audio and PSP-PDM, the next barrier would be to super-audio CD, offer superior sound remove the PSP-PDM scrambling. How- quality and leave behind the Red Book ever, removing the PSP-PDM would re- format, contain robust copy protection quire breaking an 80-bit code, which is and support copyright management sys- different for every SACD. The code is tem7. Super Audio Compact Disc never visible on a bus or connecting be- (SACD), developed by Sony & Philips, is tween integrated circuits (ICs), not even viewed as the successor of the standard in scrambled form. The descrambling in a CD. Most SACDs consist of a high- player is done in dedicated ICs by li- density (HD) layer (4.38 GB Capacity), censed IC manufacturers. PSP-PDM en- glued on top of a standard CD layer. Be- coders are not available on the open mar- sides high-quality stereo, high quality ket and can only be leased from Philips multi-channel audio is also offered on the intellectual property and standards. Since HD layer of the disc. Both versions are unlicensed DVD mastering equipment stored in Direct Stream Digital (DSD) cannot write PSP-PDM, pirated discs will instead of pulse code modulation (PCM). miss PSP-PDM. Not only does SACD provide an en- DVD-audio specification was drawn hanced listening performance to the end- up in cooperation with the music indus-

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try, which demanded very high quality grammer, Jon Johanssen, which broke the audio in stereo and multichannel, multi- CSS scrambling and allowed the reading media functions and security. Digital of encrypted DVDs. The DeCSS code Versatile Disk (DVD) offers more than was posted on the Internet and the CSS, six times the storage capacity, four times the linchpin behind DVD security, could the frequency range and 256 times the be unlocked virtually by anyone. To cur- resolution of CD. For the high quality tail DVD copying, Royal Philips Elec- audio, DVD-audio adopts a new copy tronics, NV, is promoting ‘disc wobble’ protection system: content protection for (also called wobble groove) technology6 pre-recorded media (CPPM). Addition- as a solution. This technique encodes ally, audio data on a DVD-audio disc may hidden protection data onto the lead-in contain an ‘audio watermark’ that enables groove along the inner edge of a DVD in downstream control of illegal copying. a difficult-to-duplicate manner. Normally, CPPM technology together with copy- a DVD’s grooves form a smooth spiral, right management information on the disc with the data encoded as reflective and protects the recorded content and aims to absorptive spots along the path. Disc control any copying. CPPM uses encryp- wobble reshapes the groove by wiggling tion to protect content in the AUDIO_TS the path back and forth ever so slightly in directory. An audio track can optionally a pattern that conveys the ons and offs of include an audio watermark. The water- digital data. Used in conjunction with mark can carry copy control information watermarking, disc wobble could ensure (WM-CCI) and other information about that watermarked content would be the copyright holder, which may be used played only from wobbled− that is, au- to trace illegal copies. Under the CPPM thentic− DVDs. Because of sophisticated contract, audio data must do the CPPM- tools needed to manufacture such discs, encryption when a WM-CCI is included pirating wobbled discs would be next to that restricts copying. Therefore, a non- impossible, at least for now. In fact, to- CPPM disc, which contains such a wa- day’s DVD players will become obsolete termark, will be an illegal disc. Players if and when these new measures are en- supporting CPPM detect the watermark coded on all DVDs. and stop playing back such discs. Like CDs, DVDs, which were first in- Important Legal Developments and troduced in late 1990s, also potentially Issues allow unlimited copying with no degrada- In December 1996, the World Intellec- tion from one generation to the next. Here tual Property Organization (WIPO) con- the encryption system adopted to prevent cluded work on two treaties (WCT & copying was the content scrambling sys- WPPT) designed to bring copyright pro- tem (CSS). With CSS in place, home tections into the digital age. A core con- copying of DVDs was curtailed, but in cept in these agreements is the prohibition October 1999, a software utility called against circumvention of technical meas- DeCSS was created by a Norwegian pro- ures employed to protect copyrighted

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content from unauthorized copying8. products, encryption research, protection Technological protection measures re- of privacy and security testing. Copyright quire appropriate legislative and legal Management Information (CMI) of a support to ensure that these measures are digital work consists of the title and other respected and to deter the defeat of such information identifying the copyrighted measures by parties that might otherwise, work; the name of the author; name of the violate the rights of content owners. copyright owner; with the exception of While the WIPO Treaties (WCT & public performances by radio and televi- WPPT) set forth the general prohibition sion broadcasting stations, the name of against circumvention of technological the writer, performer or director; terms measures, each signatory of the WIPO and conditions for use of the copyrighted Treaties must implement the WIPO Trea- work; identifying numbers or symbols ties through the enactment of national referring to such information or linking to laws such as the Digital Millennium such information; such other information Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 enacted as the Registrar of Copyrights may pre- by the United States and the Directive on scribe by regulation. The DMCA prohib- aspects of copyright and related rights in its knowingly providing or distributing an information society, enacted by the false CMI, the international removal or European Union. With requisite quota of alteration of CMI without the consent of countries already signing WCT and the copyright owner, and distribution of WPPT, it has now become obligatory for the copyrighted works with removed or countries like India to suitably enact the altered CMI. Watermarks are considered provisions of these WIPO Treaties in CMI because they convey the owner’s their existing national laws. The Adminis- identity and the terms and conditions for trative Ministry for Copyrights, Ministry use of copyrighted works. Consequently, of HRD is currently in the process of the removal of watermarks without the bringing Amendments to the Copyright consent of the copyright owner amounts Act, 1957, to include suitably the neces- to infringement under DMCA. sary provisions of these two Treaties9. The EU Directive on aspects of copy- The DMCA prohibits circumvention of right and related rights in the information technological measures that effectively society specifies that Member States shall control access to copyrighted works and provide authors, performers, phonogram prohibits devices that circumvent techno- producers, producers of the first fixation logical measures that effectively protect a of films, and broadcast organizations, the right of a copyright holder10. The bill in- exclusive right to authorize or prohibit cludes exceptions from the circumvention direct or indirect, temporary or permanent prohibition for libraries browsing works reproduction by any means and in any to determine whether to purchase them, form, of their copyrighted works11. Two law enforcement and intelligence activi- narrow exceptions are allowed for tran- ties, reverse engineering for the purpose sient or incidental temporary reproduc- of achieving interoperability with other tions if such reproductions are made to

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enable (a) a transmission in a network ganizations; (4) to individuals with dis- between third parties by an intermediary abilities; and (5) for purposes of public or (b) a lawful use of work where there is security. The Directive further specifies no economic benefit associated with the that Member States may incorporate ap- reproduction. The Directive specifies that propriate measures in their national law to Member States shall provide authors, per- allow circumvention of technological formers, phonogram producers, the pro- measures by natural persons seeking to ducers of first fixations of films, and make a reproduction for non-commercial broadcast organizations with the exclu- ends, unless each reproduction has al- sive right to authorize or prohibit any ready been made possible by right hold- communication to the public of their ers. These exceptions to the anti- works, by wire or wireless means, includ- circumvention requirement are much ing the making available to the public of broader than the narrow exceptions pro- their works in such a way that members vided in the DMCA. of the public may access them from a Both the DMCA and EU Directive place and at a time individually chosen by were designed, in part, to encourage ef- them. This aspect of the Directive prohib- forts by content owners and makers of its entities from making copyrighted computers, consumer electronics and works available over the Internet unless telecommunications devices to develop authorized by the copyright holder. Re- and license DRM systems to protect con- garding protection of technical measures tent and to establish standards for such and rights management information, the systems. While the US Congress passed Directive specifies that Member States the DMCA in 1998, the European Union shall provide adequate legal protection (EU) is apparently moving in the slow against the circumvention of any effective lane when it comes to establishing rules technological measures. The Directive to protect copyright holders in the digital also requires Member States to provide age. The EU’s copyright directive has not adequate legal protection against any per- yet been approved by the European Par- son knowingly removing or altering any liament (Strasbourg, France), let alone be electronic rights – management informa- adopted by its member states. The dead- tion, e.g. watermarks. In the absence of line for the adoption of the directive voluntary measures taken by the rights passed at the end of December 2002 with holders, the Directive specifies that the just two countries, Greece and Denmark, Member States shall incorporate ‘appro- signing up. priate measures’ in their national law to allow circumvention of technological Court Cases measures by (1) libraries, educational es- Two high-profile cases6 have tested the tablishments, museums, and archives for limits of this anti-circumvention law. The non-commercial ends; (2) broadcast or- first, Universal City Studios Inc v Corley, ganization making ephemeral recordings; involved DeCSS, the computer program (3) teaching and scientific research or- that decrypts the CSS encryption used to

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prevent DVD copying. When DeCSS be- they could transmit digital music files to came available on the Internet, film copy- one another. Although the files were right owners sued the operators of web transmitted directly from user to user, the sites that posted DeCSS software or software had to connect to Napster’s cen- linked to sites that did. The trial court in tral server to locate other users and the New York City in 2000 ruled DeCSS a files available on their computers. The prohibited circumvention technology that major record labels and others sued the did not come within any of the law’s nar- company, claiming users were infringing row exceptions − a ruling upheld on ap- copyright and Napster was legally liable peal. The court also ruled that disseminat- for those infringements. A federal appeals ing DeCSS − including by offering links court in San Francisco ruled in 2001 that to web sites where the program was many Napster users were likely infringing available − was illegal even though users copyright in using the network. The court might circumvent the encryption and use ruled, that Napster was doing more than the film on the DVD in a way that copy- supplying copying equipment (software), right law allowed. it was also operating a computer network. The company could be liable if it oper- Another case raises issues of techno- ated the network with actual knowledge logical protection measures beyond the that copyright infringement was occurring territory of familiar copyrighted material yet failed to block access to infringing such as motion pictures or e-books. Lex- transmissions. The court therefore or- mark International Inc v Static Control dered Napster to cooperate with copyright Components Inc involves a computer chip owners to filter infringing activity. Before that laser printer maker Lexmark placed the case could proceed to trial, Napster in its printers. That chip apparently pre- reached a settlement with some plaintiffs. vents the printers from using toner car- Difficulty in complying with the court’s tridges other than those made by Lex- injunction, however, led Napster to shut mark. The suit alleges that Static Control down its network in July 2001. makes computer chips that circumvent this technological protection measure, These cases, though not exhaustive, allowing the printer owner to use non- and the others that will surely follow, will Lexmark toner cartridges. In February, a define what legal and technological con- federal judge in Kentucky ordered Static trol copyright owners will have over how Control to stop making or selling its consumers use copyrighted works and chips, pending further consideration of how technology companies design and the case. sell software and electronic devices.

By far the highest-profile digital copy- Digital Rights Management (DRM) right case to date has been the suit against 8 Applications Napster on file sharing , which dissemi- DRM is a technology that lets rights nated software that let users participate in holders safely distribute and sell their a peer-to-peer (P2P) network in which content online in a digital form12. With

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DRM content owners can configure ac- cluding the publisher, distributor and re- cess and usage rules for their own con- tailer) as determined by their agreements. tent. Access rules may address the price The use of DRM software application of the content, the frequency and duration during creation phase of digital content of access, and whether the user is author- works towards creating a trusted envi- ized to save, print or transfer the content ronment where both the sender and the to other users. This allows for new busi- consumer can be assured that the content ness models such as trial before purchase, they receive was indeed sent by the ap- promotional previews, rentals based on propriate party and the consumer is au- play counts or expiration dates, subscrip- thorized to receive the content. tions, and purchases of streaming or downloadable media. For online content, DRM Technology Overviews owners can quickly change usage rules without having to redistribute the content. DRM consists broadly of two elements : Considering the applications, the most the identification of intellectual property promising content for distribution with (copyright) and enforcement of access DRM are : and usage restrictions12. The identifica- tion consists in the attribution of a stan- − Audio : music and the audio materials dard identifier and marking the content − Video : movies, music videos with a watermark. The enforcement − Publishing : books, documents, news works via encryption that is by ensuring articles etc. that the digital content is only used for − Multimedia presentations purposes agreed by the right holder. The − Computer games and software. first step in providing a deployable and expandable DRM technology strategy involves the appropriate metatagging of With DRM, books, market research, the contents that are created and stored professional journals, etc. can all be se- within databases and digital media asset curely published and distributed on the management technologies. After the as- Internet. The publishers can gain access sets are metatagged, the information is to new consumers, lower the costs of dis- encrypted to ensure the security of the tribution, and greatly increase their content. After sufficient authorization and knowledge of consumers’ interests and clearing (e.g. payment) of the content , needs. In addition, a provider can permit asset is accounted for, the content can be the re-use of all or portions of its informa- transmitted (a decrypted key unblocks tion by others in the value chain, increas- protected content) and displayed in a se- ing collateral sales. Software can be se- cure and trusted environment via a client curely downloaded or physically distrib- technology, like the Acrobat Reader, an uted to users, demonstrated, purchased or Internet Browser, Media Player or a set- rented with payments and usage informa- top box. tion going back to the participants (in-

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A DRM system usually has four soft- The DRM process starts with the con- ware components13: content protection tent provider encoding and metatagging software, a content distribution server, a the content into the format supported by licence server and a content viewer plug the DRM software. The format depends in. Usually the DRM system is integrated on the software vendor e.g. software from with an e-commerce system that takes Microsoft only supports Window Media care of payments and triggers the func- files. Next the content is encrypted and tions of the licence server (Fig 2). packaged using special access and usage

Fig. 2 ⎯ DRM process flow

Fig. 3 ⎯ Superdistribution

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rules or a licence key that is saved on the Major companies include Microsoft, licence server or on the physical distribu- IBM, Real Networks, Sony and Inter tion medium such as CD or a DVD. The Trust, to name just a few, which are licence server consists of three compo- working on both the component tech- nents: (1) an encryption key repository, nologies of the system as well as provid- (2) a user identity database which ties ing completely integrated secure content back to the content, and (3) a DRM li- delivery systems. Organizations include cence generator that binds the content and the Motion Pictures Association of Amer- the encryption key to the end user’s de- ica (MPAA), Secure Digital Music Initia- vice and registers the user with the ap- tive (SDMI) and Moving Picture Experts propriate parties involved in the digital Group (MPEG). Microsoft’s end to end distribution value chain. Superdistribution digital rights management platform for is a special usage rule that accelerates the secure distribution of digital media files is distribution of content and lowers the called Windows Media Rights Manager marketing costs substantially (Fig 3). The (WMRM) and currently supports only protected content is transferred to the ap- Microsoft’s proprietary WMA audio and propriate distribution server or saved on WMV video formats. IBM’s product for physical distribution media. In the case of DRM is called the Electronic Media audio and video, the online distribution Management System (EMMS). It has an can be done using downloading or open architecture that allows for future streaming. At the other end of the process advances and changes in the various me- is an online customer who downloads the dia properties, such as encryption, com- protected content or wants to receive the pression, and watermarking. The Real content stream. The client software on the System Media Commerce Suite (RMCS) end user’s device communicates the ap- from Real Network is a platform for se- propriate rights and permissions to the cure licensing and delivery of digital me- end user and back to the licence server. dia. It includes typical DRM software The number of communications back to components: content protection software, the licence server is determined by the a licence server, an enhanced distribution content rules at the time of packaging. server and an upgraded Real Player. Once the user abides by the appropriate Sony’s latest ‘Open MGX’ DRM and registration (e.g. name, address, email), distribution technology can be utilized for payment and clearing methodologies for various types of products and devices. operation, the DRM licence handler col- With this technology, the usage condi- lects the user and content asset informa- tions for content can be controlled from tion and produces a licence to decrypt the the distributor’s end and hence, content content on the end user’s device. distribution can be secured from the be- DRM is attracting a lot of interest at ginning to the end of the service. Inter the present time, and there are a large Trust Rights System, general purpose number of companies and organizations DRM platform enables the content owner working on developing such systems. to first encrypt pieces of content using the

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standard packager or stream packager. defines a minimum set of tools that will Next, the usage rules are set and stored in guarantee interoperability14. In the con- secure files called rights packs. The en- text of DRM, technologies where stan- crypted content is stored on the retailer’s dardization is and will be essential are: distribution server and the rights packs content representation (including scalabil- are stored on the rights server. The rights ity capabilities), content and usage envi- client family consist of five products: ronment description, transport protocols rights desktop for PCs, rights TV for set- and intellectual property management and top boxes, rights phone for mobile protection of the associated descriptions phones, rights PD for portable music and adaptations. Interoper-ability in DRM player and PDAs and rights PDF plug-in. systems is very crucial to the realization Inter Trust’s DRM solution cannot be of open multimedia infrastructure. Some used for streaming, which is a disadvan- of the open standards14,15 that are being tage considering the distribution of music adopted for DRM include: and videos. In January 2003, Sony Pic- tures Entertainment and Phillips Electron- DOI (Digital Object Identifier) ics purchased the assets of Inter Trust DOI is a system for identifying and ex- Technologies. Inter Trust assets include changing intellectual property in the digi- 26 patents and 85 pending patent applica- tal environment. The DOI provides tion for software and hardware, which unique IDs for any content type. DOI is a can be implemented in DRM products. system for persistent identifier of intellec- tual property entities on digital networks. DRM Enabling Technologies and It is a key standard in DRM since it is Standardization interoperable with almost any DRM tech- DRM system should enable rights nology. The DOI has two components, holders to enjoy maximum flexibility, the prefix and the suffix, which together within legal boundaries, in setting the form the DOI. A DOI may be assigned to usage rule they wish to apply to their con- any item of intellectual property, which tent, as well as enable them to adopt new must be precisely defined by means of business models, which open up new and structural metadata. The DOI itself re- alternative revenue streams for their con- mains persistent through ownership tent. For this, the deployment of a global changes, and unaltered once assigned. and interoperable technical infrastructure, Unlike a URL, it does not point to a loca- which would facilitate access for con- tion. sumers and for all producers, should be XMCL (eXtensible Media Commerce Lan- encouraged. The need for any standard guage) that is basically an agreement between XCML is an XML – based language interested parties comes from an essential for describing rights models, such as requirement: interoperability. The key to rights, attributes, types of users, security effective standardization is to create a levels etc. XMCL aims to establish inter- ‘minimum’ standard that normatively operability between proprietary DRM

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systems by standardizing the rules for tend a platform – independent language how content can be played in a way that (XML) with suitable syntax and seman- is independent of codes, DRM system tics for expressing those techniques in the and e-commerce system. form of policy statements.

XrML (eXtensible Rights Markup Language) OeBF (Open eBook Forum) XrML is a language to specify rights. The Open eBook Forum (OeBF) is an XrML is an XML-based usage grammar international trade and standards organi- for specifying rights and conditions to zation whose members consist of hard- control access to secure digital content ware and software companies, publishers, and services. It is intended to support the authors, user of electronic books, and re- commerce of digital content, such as the lated organizations. The goal of the publishing and setting of e-books, mov- OeBF’s standards activities is to produce ies, music and games and computer soft- industry-adopted specifications, which ware. XrML provides syntactic, semantic benefit publishers, technology companies and system interoperability. This interop- and consumers. OeBF provides a forum erability enables XrML to be used as a for the discussion of issues and technolo- part of a bigger system and comprehends gies related to electronic books and for other things such as security. Some of the developing, publishing and maintaining companies supporting XrML include common specifications relating to elec- Adobe, HP, Xerox and Microsoft. tronic books and promoting the success-

ful adoption of these specifications. XACML (Extensible Access Control Markup Language) XACML is an XML specification for ODRL (Open Digital Rights Language) expressing policies for information access ODRL provides the semantics for a over the Internet. Ratified by the Organi- DRM expression language and data dic- zation for the Advancement of Structured tionary pertaining to all forums of digital Information Standards (OASIS) in Febru- content. The ODRL specifications sup- ary 2003, XACML was developed to port an extensible language and vocabu- standardize access control through XML lary (data dictionary) for the expression so that, for example, a user can access of terms and conditions over any content several affiliated website with a simple including permissions, constraints, re- logon. The objective of XACML is to quirements, conditions, and offers and address the need for a common interface agreements with rights holders. ODRL standard among diverse systems and de- supports MPEG-21 and has been offi- vices by defining a language capable of cially accepted by the open mobile alli- expressing policy statements for a wide ance – formally known as the WAP Fo- variety of information systems and de- rum – as the standards rights expression vices. The approach taken by XAMCL is language for all mobile content. ODRL is to draw together long-established tech- freely available and has no licensing re- niques for access-control and then to ex- quirements.

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OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) vices used by different communities. OMA is an organization which seeks MPEG Rights Expression Language to develop the entire mobile industry by (MPEG REL) specifies the expression removing the barriers as global user adop- language for issuing rights for users to act tion and by ensuring seamless application on digital items, their components, frag- interoperability which allowing busi- ments and containers. MPEG Rights Data nesses to compete through innovation and Dictionary (MPEG RDD) forms the basis differentiation. OMA has tackled the is- of all expressions of rights as defined by sues of downloading and distribution of MPEG REL. The MPEG-21 REL & RDD digital content through mobile phones work together to allow the machine- with the standardization work of the readable expression of rights associated OMA download, which includes (i) with the use of multimedia. applying DRM to content and its distribu- tion, and (ii) enabling controlled (i.e. reli- SDMI(Secure Digital Music Initiative): able) delivery of generic content objects. SDMI is a forum of worldwide record The OMA DRM Version 1.0 standard industry, consumer electronics and in- governs the use of mobile – centric con- formation technology to develop specifi- tent types, whether it is received by WAP cations for music related DRM solutions. download or MMS. This is the world’s SDMI published a specification Part I, first mobile DRM standard. OMA has Version 1.0 for 1999 but its later Part II chosen the XML based ODRL as the ba- watermark proposals were successfully sis of their digital rights expression lan- cracked. After this, SDMI has gone slow guage for content. on its Phase II proposals and is presently unclear how important SDMI will be in future. MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) MPEG is an ISO/IEC working group for standards development of coded rep- Department of Information Technol- resentation of digital audio and video. ogy Initiative MPEG has a series of specifications pro- The Department of Information Tech- moting content interoperability pertinent nology, Government of India, has initi- to DRM: MPEG – 2 A/V content for ated a project titled ‘Watermarking of DVD and TV, MPEG-4 multimedia con- digital audio and setting up of resource tent representation (Metadata), MPEG-4 centre for DRM systems’ at Centre for IPMP (Intellectual Property Management Development of Advanced Computing and Protection) addresses connected ap- (CDAC), Thiruvananthapuram. To start pliances and standalone devices, MPEG-7 with, this resource centre shall develop is content description (complements robust watermarking algorithms for digi- MPEG-4), MPEG-21 is a multimedia tal audio (PCM, MP3 etc.) and test and framework to enable transparent and simulate those watermarking techniques augmented use of multimedia resources as a copyright protection mechanism of across a wide range of networks and de- digital audio over Internet. The project

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also involves adoption of various interna- 4 Poditchuk Christine I and Delp Edward J, Digital tional standards to develop DRM system watermarking: Algorithms and applications, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, July 2001 for efficient and secured delivery of con- 5 Commission of the European Communities, tent (audio, video) over Internet. Commission staff working paper- Digital rights, background, systems, assessment, Brussels, Conclusion 14.02.2002, Sec.(2002) 197 There have been tremendous ad- 6 IEEE Spectrum, 40 (5) 2003 7 Sun Microsystems white paper, Digital rights vancements in DRM and digital media management: Managing the digital distribution management technology recently. Al- value chain though traditional DRM has been viewed 8 Turnbull Bruce H, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, primarily as an anti-piracy technology, Important legal developments regarding DRM provides for bigger revenue gener- protection of copyrighted content against unauthorized copying, IEEE Communications ating opportunities, especially in context Magazine, August 2001 computing, new business models, and 9 IPR Manual version 2.0, General Information on new digital products. It is based on ex- Copyrights Protections of Software and other tracting the technological, legal, and eco- Digital Works, IPR Cell, Department of Information Technology, Government of India nomic functions of copyright to identify 10 US Copyright office summary, The Digital principles that should be the basis for the Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, December design of DRM systems. DRM is rapidly 1998 becoming an integral part of successful 11 Commission of the European Communities, Commission staff working paper- Digital rights, companies’ corporate and Internet infra- background, systems, assessment, Brussels, structure. Besides different spending be- 14.02.2002, Sec (2002) 197 haviour that might generate revenues for 12 Sonera Plaza Ltd, Medialab, Digital rights many online entertainment companies, management white paper, 3 February, 2002 the seamless management of rights ends 13 Sun Microsystems white paper, Digital rights management: managing the digital distribution its billing processes secure to improve value chain today’s entertainment experience in the 14 CEN/ISSS Digital Rights Management Draft PC, television and other portable devices Report, Feb. 2003 for European Commission environment using the emerging DRM 15 National Institute of Standards and Technology, technology. US Department of Commerce, Special Publication 500-241, Information Technology: A References Quick Reference List of Organizations and Standards for Digital Rights Management, 1 Jean Camp L, ‘First principles of copyright for October 2002 DRM design,’ IEEE Internet Computing, May- June 2003 16 International Organization for Standardization 2 Piva A, Bartoline F, Barni M, Managing ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11, Coding of Moving copyright in open networks, IEEE Internet Pictures and Audio, Intellectual Property Computing, May-June 2002 Management and Protection in MPEG 3 WIPO’s Digital Agenda – www.wipo2.wipo.int Standards, January 2001

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