Copy Protection, Digital Rights to Flourish

[Steve Mehs]

Copy protection and digital rights management (DRM) solutions for digital consumer products and services are estimated to generate $600 million worldwide in 2002, rising to more than $2 billion by 2006, according to a report from Digital Tech Consulting (DTC), a research firm based in Dallas.

The DTC research analyzes the explosive new opportunities content-protection suppliers are realizing from digital pay television, digital packaged media and Internet providers as consumer appetites increase for digital entertainment services.

Among the product and media categories analyzed are prerecorded optical discs, DVD and CD players, Internet media subscription services, and digital set-top boxes for satellite, cable, terrestrial and video over IP networks. According to DTC, the most significant content-protection revenue will come from prerecorded CD-audio software as more music publishers include copy protection on their audio CDs.

For more information on DTC research, visit www.dtcreports.com.

From SkyReport (http://www.skyreport.com/skyreport/oct2002/103002.shtm#four) (Used with Permission)

[Ryan]

Hey Steve:

This Dvorak article discusses (once again) online music swapping, which I understand is of some interest to you. :p

Thought you might like some of the analogies.

When is Stealing not Stealing? (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,652236,00.asp)

I find that I agree with John on this issue--that the copyright protection was never really intended to work under todays technological advances. The whole issue needs to be rewritten from the ground up. And media companies need to sell their wares for reasonable prices.

[Steve Mehs]

Great article Ryan! I was always fond of the Napster debates he had on Silicon Spin. Yes, this is a subject of interest to me :)

Did the farmer lose a sale even though you never buy apples?
Good Point!

It's against the law to play the radio in a public place without paying an ASCAP royalty.
:rolleyes: If that applies to public high schools, toss me in the slammer.

Seriously, if they ever really want to crack down on piracy, all they have to do is make an example out of someone. In the case of any kind of software and DBS piracy the feds do a poor job on making them pay. Plus there more concerned about the people selling the illegal material in mass quantities then those who use use it for themselves. That episode of Cyber Crime showed that plain and clear.

[James_F]

I've always enjoyed reading Dan Bricklin (co-creater of VisiCalc) on the subject. Here are two great articles on copy protection that he wrote.

Copy Protection Robs The Future (http://www.bricklin.com/robfuture.htm)

The Recording Industry is Trying to Kill the Goose That Lays the Golden Egg (http://www.bricklin.com/recordsales.htm)

[Ryan]

The public playing of radio usually applies to businesses and other entities that are open to the public for profit or money-making reasons, such as a health club, restaurant, bar, hotel lobby, office lobby, etc. In these areas you can not just turn on the radio to entertain people--you must compensate the publishes and artists sinse you are using their property in the pursuit of income.

As for a public school, I would guess that there is some sort of allowance for this, or nobody persues it to avoid the appearance of being a royal A$$. But I could be wrong.

My health club for the longest time was playing the radio throughtout the club. I was often curious if they were following the rules and paying for the privledge of doing so. They are a big regional chain, so maybe they were following the rules, but they cut so many other corners in running the clubs that I truely doubted it. Then suddenly they started using some in-house product specifically for health clubs instead of the radio, so maybe they got caught.