Enemy of the State: An Examination of DRM

Digital rights management, also known as DRM, refers to technologies used by hardware and software companies to limit digital devices (like iPods) from increasing the proliferation of free content.

Content manufacturers are in the business of making money. To achieve this goal they need to sell their goods to consumers, however, in the digital age - their products are subject to a huge expansion in accessibility. Music is no longer something we listen to on a physical medium like the CD, it is data made readily available for mass distribution across large networks with little to no effort or expense on the part of the consumer. Up until ten years ago, consumers had no means with which to extract music from a CD. As technology evolves and the cost of technology drops, consumers benefit by having the barriers to access dissapear completely.

This creates a large problem for content manufacturers: how do we protect our investment? Content manufacturers invest a lot of time, money and energy into creating products for consumers to buy. Sustainability, as a business model, depends entirely on consumers continuously purchasing products and turning profit. One CD sold for $15 in a store is worth a minimum of $500,000 as an investment to a company when you consider how many people need to get paid from the production team to the band to retail itself. When that one CD is purchased for $15 and distributed across the internet for free to as many users as possible, content manufacturers lose money. A lot of money. Consumers are definitely the winners here as they spend literally next to nothing for unlimited access to information - which also includes paid content.

This is where DRM comes into play, as technology evolves the product must evolve as well. With digital technologies paving the way for a decentralized world filled with free information, companies must counter-act with centralized technologies like copyright protection software to create new social movements under the umbrella of increased control. The iPod and iTunes are just a simple example of the synergies created between the content manufacturer, hardware and software provider that have succeeded in creating sustainability in the digital age by using political-economic processes to develop systems within which consumers interact.

Manuel Castells talks about the Space of Flows in his nine hypotheses, a new space where human relationships are carried out across digital networks. How companies and consumers interact through these digital technologies is an example of these relationships and how companies must adapt as technology progresses in order to create sustainability in a globalized, information economy.

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