2005-11-30

Watermarking instead of DRM?

TechDirt mentions an article about replacing DRM (Digital Right/Restriction Management) on media like music or video or other digial content with watermarking. Basically the file would be marked as being owned by you. You could give it away...but they could find out who it was from.

This has possibilities, big ones, but as they point out, there are downsides too, both from the vendors standpoint and (I think) from the user standpoint. What if someone stole your data and gave it away; how do you prove you didn't do it? Also, what about some of the more open e-boook and other digital standards (MP3 for example); you could easily remove the watermarks.

The closest I've seen to a "watermark" form of DRM/copy proection is the eReader (formerly Palm Reader formerly Peanut Press) method of securing your e-books. When you open it for the first time you have to type in the credit card number of the card you used to purchase it. This has problems too: 1) what if they go out of business and their reader software (available for Mac, Windos, Palm, and PocketPC, but nothing else such as Linux, Symbian, etc) stops working at some point in the future? And what if you forget your credit card number...what if you need to type it in years form now and have lost it? It happens.

No, all of this stuff is NOT going to be accepted and will ALWAYS be broken instantly. The proper method is to do what companies like Baen Books, artists like Jane Siberry and others are doing...trust the customer. You don't copy protect paper books and those can be digitized easily too. You can always break audio file proection by the simple expedient of simply re-ripping the audio; use program like Audio HiJack to take the output going from iTunes or RealPlayer or Windows Media Player to your speakers and turn it into an MP3.

In short, corporate folks, the simple solution is to give up. You can't win. The harder you try the worse it will get. People don't like being told then can't do what they want with what they've purchased (and no, I don't mean give it away to all and sundry...I mean fair use, which DRM also inhibits, and the expense of the Constitutional guarantees!) Instead of inconveniencing your customers (if not outright endangering them like Sony did with it's "rootkit" copy protection disaster), try trusting them instead. It seems to be working for all the folks who ease off (iTunes) or remove (Baen, and to some extent also Fictionwise) their copy protection schemes.

I have no problem with simple watermarking, but don't make a big production out of it. Marking the ebook with "From the Library of John Smith" might work, but I can't see how useful it'd be for MP3s or video or graphic files; graphic files already get watermarked when printed to make sure the Feds can tell whick printer was used to produce counterfit currency (so it's been revealed recently). Adding another layer will just be worse.

MPAA, RIAA, et. al: GIVE UP. YOU CAN'T WIN THE COPY PROTECTION BATTLE. You CAN lose your customers, however, as Sony is finding out, if you persist in treating them like criminials. They are 100% right when they say that DRM only causes problems for inconvenient customers. THere hasn't been a DRM scheme out there that hasn't been broken, and quickly.

Worried about movies getting out on the internet within hours (if not before) of the movie's premiere? Then release the damned thing on DVD at the same time. Most folks would rather drive to Best Buy or the video rental store and pay a few bucks than waste house downloading and assembling and burnign what are usually rather bad digital copies. People WILL pay for convenience. THAT'S where to get them. That's why iTunes is so successful.

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