Protecting IP in the Digital World
Jinfo Blog

By Sophie Alexander

Abstract

Digital rights management (DRM) is evolving. We interview digital content expert Martin Murtland to find out more.

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Digitisation and the increasing popularity of the internet makes it very easy to share documents and data. This can have a positive effect on knowledge sharing but often content owners want to set the terms by which people can use their intellectual property.

One solution to protecting intellectual property is digital rights management (DRM) which is designed to prevent piracy of electronic media and intellectual property, such as music, films or corporate documents, by encrypting the data or restricting the way that the content can be used.

As part of the FreePint Topic Series "All About Usage - From Content Sharing to Data Mining", author Martin Murtland highlights some of the benefits and drawbacks of DRM, as well as highlighting the key DRM providers. He also offers advice on what factors to consider when choosing a solution.

Protecting Corporate Assets

Martin has over 20 years of experience in the digital content sector and explains, "DRM solutions help control, protect, monitor and track who is using the content. In theory it only allows those who have paid or have the right to access the content to use it in the permitted ways."

For corporate enterprises in particular, he says, "the need to protect their intellectual assets in a world hot with stories of Edward Snowden and cybersecurity is undoubtedly fuelling the current growth of eDRM providers." 

However, DRM isn't problem-free. Martin warns that teething troubles can include "no evidence that it prevents copyright loss - in fact it can cause more problems for the legitimate users" although it can "help to facilitate new business models such as trialling content via time limits to use media". 

FreePint Subscribers can log in to read Martin's article "An Introduction to Digital Rights Management" to find out how DRM came into being, how it works, who uses it and why. He's also written a companion article "Introduction and Overview of Content Management Systems (CMS)".

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