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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2 comments:
Vince, I think that you have raised some very relevant points in your evaluation of Digital Rights Management. Due to the fact that technology has evolved substantially in the past ten years makes DRM a very interesting subject to examine. When you bring up the point of content manufacturers depending on sustainability in order to turn profit and remain successful, I find it very interesting to relate this idea of sustainability to the world of cell phone consumers. In the world today, cell phone technology is something that people rely on and need to remain connected in everyday life. Cell phone companies understand this need on part of the consumer and use contracts and SIM cards in order to create sustainability within their company. There are some cell phone companies that rely on SIM cards to legitimize their customers to their networks and their models of cell phones. This creates sustainability for their company because it keeps customers coming back in order to upgrade their cell phones and contracts. However, cell phone companies cannot always rely on contracts and SIM cards to prevent decentralization of their hardware and software. For example, I purchased an AT&T Blackberry from the United States, and I put my Roger’s SIM card into the Blackberry so that I can use the Roger’s network on my AT&T Blackberry. I needed to get my AT&T Blackberry unlocked by the Rogers’s network in order for it to work. Once I did get the Blackberry unlocked I could do everything that the Rogers’s network offers, even though my Blackberry was from a completely different cellular company. Therefore, if people pay a flat rate for any brand of cell phone and then use their Roger’s SIM card in that particular phone, this creates a lack of sustainability for the Roger’s Wireless Company. The process of using a certain content manufacturer’s phone with a different cellular network produces decentralization on the part of that particular network. Rather than having to sign a contract with Roger’s Wireless in order to get my Blackberry, I cheated the system because I didn’t have to pay for the Roger’s hardware, but I still use their network almost free of charge. I still have to pay my monthly cell phone bill but I am not tied down to any specific Blackberry contract and I completely own my phone. I think that overall Digital Rights Management plays a huge role in the sustainability of cell phone companies. Now that I have experienced firsthand how easy it can be to prevent cellular network companies from achieving sustainability, I realise just how important the role of DRM has in the overall success of cell phone companies and their manufacturers.
Thanks for the comments Paige. I strongly believe the impact of Digital Rights Management has had a great impact on the development of the network society on a whole.
Success for companies is relative in an information economy if society does not benefit. For example, we talked about the issue of sustainability for consumers and companies invested in digital devices, however, we completely dismissed the impact both of these forces have on the development of modern society. Consumers look to companies for services they cannot get anywhere else. Companies look to consumers for revenue gain and use their profit to invest in new technologies to help establish future gains. Society leans upon both these foundations to help in establishing a more efficient world. The role of technology in society creates tools which help in enabling social, economic, political and cultural change.
As you mentioned above, consumers fight against centralized systems in order to establish ownership and control over their digital devices. We have already identified this issue as a threat to sustainability, however, we have not yet explored the hidden benefits of these actions.
Consumers aid in creating systems of accountability through actions which circumvent companies who attempt to limit accessibility. Companies are forced to evolve their products and methods in order to establish control in a competitive, globalized market. Society benefits from the actions of consumers and companies constantly in struggle with one another over issues of control through the creation of new technologies and less restrictions on networked societies.
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