legal hijacking of technical terms -- Re: "DRM"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Ed Gerck <egerck () nma com>
Date: June 17, 2005 1:59:45 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: Ip ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: legal hijacking of technical terms -- Re: [IP] "DRM"


[Dave: for IP]

DRM is _not_ a legal term; it's a technical term. In IT security, when
we talk about "rights" we do not mean whatever the local legal meaning
for "rights" might  be.

One would hope that the legal terminology war that has hijacked so much
of the X.509/PKI technical work would stop there, where it has already
shown to cause  more harm than help.

The technical term Digital Rights Management is about "digital rights"
-- as in access rights to digital information. Whether those digital
access rights correspond or not to legal rights is an open, local and
variably-understood question. It may well be that DRM imposes access
restrictions that are not legal in some jurisdictions, while they are
legal in others.

OTOH, technically, "protection" is not the same as "rights". Therefore,
DRM and TPM, technically, should not be the same.

Regards,
Ed Gerck


> From: Margaret Jane Radin <mradin () stanford edu>
> Date: June 15, 2005 7:57:09 AM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: "DRM"
>
> I wish people would drop the term "DRM."  It was coined by those  
> who  wish to claim as "rights" some things which are not actually  
> their  rights, or are at best contested.  In other words, the "R"  
> in the  term "DRM" begs an important legal question.  I wish people  
> would  instead use the term "TPM" (Technological Protection  
> Measures)  because at least it is neutral on whether or not those  
> who deploy  them have a "right" to do what they're doing in locking  
> up  information.  And TPM happens to be the term used in the WIPO   
> treaties, too.





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