Digital rights management, copyright, and Napster

Abstract

Digital Rights Management technologies in the field of copyright protection should meet four objectives: • give consumers new freedom to enjoy music and other forms of content; • give copyright owners and other value chain participants the means to manage and protect their rights in published works; • implement elements of law, such as copyright exceptions, that ensure that rights are managed in accordance with the public interest; • provide users with the means to manage their legitimate personal rights and interests.We sketch how these goals can be achieved with current technology for peer-to-peer Digital Rights Management (DRM). This technology can ensure the neutrality, security, commercial reliability, and trusted interoperability of applications and services used to protect and manage rights in all forms of information, including creative works protected by copyright. The rapidly evolving area of digital commerce in information requires a framework of commercial trust comparable in scope, and at least as reliable, as the systems of trust that underpin commerce in the physical world.