Policy Post 12.18: CDT Offers Metrics for Evaluating DRM

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: CDT Info <info () cdt org>
Date: September 29, 2006 3:10:36 PM EDT
To: farber () cis upenn edu
Cc: CDT Policy Posts <policy-posts () cdt org>
Subject: Policy Post 12.18: CDT Offers Metrics for Evaluating DRM

A Briefing On Public Policy Issues Affecting Civil Liberties Online
from The Center For Democracy and Technology

1) CDT Offers Metrics for Evaluating DRM
2) Questions To Ask in Measuring and Comparing DRM Technologies
3) The Importance of Competition in the DRM Marketplace

------------------------------------------------

1) CDT Offers Metrics for Evaluating DRM

The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) has issued a paper  
outlining specific questions that product reviewers and, ultimately,  
the public may want to consider when evaluating media devices and  
services incorporating digital rights management (DRM) technologies.

Content creators view DRM as an important tool to help protect their  
content from widespread uncontrolled distribution in the digital  
environment.  Critics question DRM's effectiveness, but CDT's premise  
is that DRM is already an established feature of the media  
marketplace and is likely to remain so.  Moreover, while a number of  
policy debates touch on issues relating to DRM, for the foreseeable  
future it is the market, rather than government, that is likely to  
play the primary role in shaping DRM.

It therefore will be important for the public and product reviewers  
to understand how to evaluate the impact of DRM on the media user's  
experience.  Different DRM systems will provide different  
capabilities for users.  An informed base of consumers capable of  
comparing products and expressing and acting on their preferences can  
help ensure that the marketplace for digital media products is  
diverse, competitive, and responsive to reasonable consumer  
expectations.  The extent of the public's current understanding of  
DRM, however, is at best unclear.  A 2005 survey of European digital  
music users, for example, found that 71 percent did not know whether  
the music they purchased was subject to usage restrictions.

CDT's paper seeks to promote greater public understanding and  
discussion of DRM by providing consumers, product reviewers, and  
consumer advocates some concrete guidance concerning the factors to  
look at when evaluating DRM in the marketplace.  The goal is not to  
suggest that any particular DRM schemes are "good" or "bad" in any  
general sense, but rather to provide tools for consumers to assess  
the DRM-related tradeoffs associated with different marketplace  
offerings.

Evaluating DRM:  Building a Marketplace for the Convergent World
http://www.cdt.org/copyright/20060907drm.pdf

------------------------------------------------

2) Questions To Ask in Measuring and Comparing DRM Technologies

DRM has already been widely deployed in several common digital media  
products, including prerecorded DVDs, digital video recorders such as  
those made by TiVo, copy-protected CDs, and online digital music  
services.  CDT's paper starts by discussing the DRM in these  
products, focusing both on the ways in which DRM limits certain  
consumer uses of digital media and on the ways in which it  
facilitates new channels for the distribution of content.

These various implementations of DRM in the media marketplace  
illustrate that DRM can operate in a variety of ways, with a variety  
of consequences for consumer choices.  Therefore, CDT's paper seeks  
to set out some different dimensions against which DRM products may  
be measured and compared, on the theory that the ability of consumers  
to compare DRM products will be essential to driving competition  
between different DRM offerings.

CDT's list of consumer metrics for DRM-equipped digital devices and  
services is not necessarily exhaustive, but it identifies some  
specific questions that CDT believes product testers and reviewers  
should be asking as they evaluate media products.  CDT's proposed  
metrics fall into four main categories.

(1) Transparency

Is there clear disclosure to users of the effects of DRM?

-Relevant information for disclosure: Are users given fair notice of  
product characteristics that may be relevant to them?
-Manner of disclosure:  Is notice provided in a manner that is  
sufficiently prominent and understandable?  Is important information  
buried in long license agreements or similar fine print?
-Timing of disclosure:  Is notice provided at appropriate times?  For  
example, is notice provided both up front, and as part of ongoing  
interactions with the product or service?

(2) Effect on Use

What are the specific parameters and limitations for the use of a work?

Personal use and copying of works:  To what extent do DRM measures  
facilitate or permit personal uses and copying of content, for  
purposes such as time shifting, place shifting, and limited sharing?

-Choice and interoperability:  Do DRM protections allow consumers to  
use media they buy on a wide variety of platforms and devices, or  
with a wide range of services - or is interoperability narrowly limited?
-Facilitating end-user creativity:  To what extent do DRM measures  
facilitate end-user creativity, by allowing users to interact with  
and create content rather than just passively receiving it?
-Permanence / risk of unexpected loss of access:  Does a DRM scheme  
create risks that users could unexpectedly lose access to their content?

(3) Collateral Impact

Does the DRM have any other potential impact on a user, aside from  
its direct impact on the ways the user can use or distribute the  
protected content?

-Privacy and anonymity:  Are users' privacy and anonymity preserved?  
What data is "phoned home" to a central server of the content  
distributor or other party?
-Security:  Does the DRM carry any risk of impairing the security of  
users' computers or other devices?
-Device functionality:  Are there other ways in which in which the  
DRM could impair the functionality of users' computers or other devices?

(4) Purpose and Consumer Benefit.

-Does it appear that DRM is being used to innovate and facilitate new  
business models that fill previously unaddressed demand and give  
consumers new choices?
-Or is DRM being used to lock consumers into old business models or  
to limit consumers' choices in services and devices?

In assessing how a particular DRM performs with respect to these  
criteria, there are a number of things to keep in mind.  Naturally,  
different types of media products may carry different consumer  
expectations and raise different issues; some of the questions above  
may be more relevant to some types of media than others, and in some  
cases direct comparisons may present apples-to-oranges problems.  
Different types of business arrangements may be relevant as well. For  
example, a movie downloaded for rental may come with more restrictive  
DRM than a movie downloaded for purchase, but consumers and product  
reviewers might view the difference as reflecting an attractive  
tradeoff in light of the difference in price.

CDT also believes that product reviewers and others should not limit  
their analysis to comparisons with prior or existing products or  
services.  Advances in digital media technologies make possible an  
evolving set of capabilities and uses.  A forward-looking frame of  
reference would consider what an honest and law-abiding consumer  
would be able to do with networked, general-purpose computers and  
open-format media, and use this as one basis of comparison.

CDT's point here is not that everything that is possible with  
unprotected content on general purpose computers should immediately  
be possible for DRM-protected content; after all, unprotected content  
is easily susceptible to massive piracy.  But comparisons to an  
unprotected media environment, by highlighting what might be possible  
from a purely technical perspective, may help illustrate the  
technical choices and tradeoffs associated with DRM.  Over time,  
product reviewers and consumer advocates may fairly press  
manufacturers and content owners to develop secure ways of  
implementing the missing capabilities.

Evaluating DRM quick-reference guide
http://www.cdt.org/copyright/20060907drm-metrics.php

------------------------------------------------

3) The Importance of Competition in the DRM Marketplace

Development of a well-functioning market for DRM is important for  
achieving balanced solutions to the policy challenges posed by the  
problem of copyright infringement on the Internet.  As CDT discussed  
in a 2005 paper, Protecting Copyright and Internet Values:  A  
Balanced Path Forward, the deployment of new models for lawfully  
accessing content online and in digital form is an essential  
component of a viable strategy for digital copyright policy.  New  
distribution models are likely to rely on DRM to prevent widespread  
infringement and enable services - such as online movie rentals -  
that consumers will find attractive.

In short, DRM can be a key component of a vibrant digital media  
marketplace.  But this requires the development of a robust content  
delivery and DRM market in which consumers have multiple choices and  
sufficient information, and in which reasonable consumer concerns  
about issues such as DRM's privacy impact are satisfactorily addressed.
Attractive, lawful digital content offerings, combined with strong  
enforcement of copyright law to make infringement unattractive, can  
provide the foundations for a sound and balanced approach to the  
issue of copyright infringement on the Internet.  Finding balanced  
solutions is crucial, because the likely alternatives are technology  
mandates or regulatory restrictions that are inconsistent with  
innovation and the open architecture of the Internet.

Protecting Copyright and Internet Values:  A Balanced Path Forward
http://www.cdt.org/copyright/20050607framing.pdf
_______________________________________________

Detailed information about online civil liberties issues may be
found at http://www.cdt.org/.

This document may be redistributed freely in full or linked to
http://www.cdt.org/publications/policyposts/2006/18

Excerpts may be re-posted with prior permission of dmcguire () cdt org

Policy Post 12.18 Copyright 2006 Center for Democracy and Technology
_______________________________________________
http://www.cdt.org/mailman/listinfo/policy-posts


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