The Great Wall of DRM

The Great Wall of China is one of the marvels of human history. Astronauts claim that the Great Wall is the only man-made object that can be seen from space.

 

The original construction of the Great Wall started 6th century BC, and continued through various dynasties into the 16th century. It is the longest and largest construction ever completed in human history, and easily the most expensive ever. Despite of its grandeur, it was never truly successful in achieving its original objective as a defensive fortification. Yet the obsession to build walls around valued assets continued through dynasties, and to this modern day.

 

Just like the Great Wall, defensive Digital Rights Management DRM has a number of inherent weaknesses:

 

The presence of “Wall” is an open invitation for attack

The wall is an advertisement for something valuable, a challenge for the brave, a magnet for the greedy, and a prize for the brightest hackers in cyberspace. Any human-constructed form is destructible.

 

The wall is comprised of almost infinite number of single points of failure

The wall is a linear structure. Compromising any point will lead to the failure of the entire defensive system. A highly restrictive DRM system is a fragile line of defense. It may have the most advanced technology, but it will never overcome the fact that digital media must eventually be presented in its original open and free form, for human consumption.

 

The wall is static

The wall, once built, can not be moved to accommodate changing needs. DRM based on restriction locks down content, prevents creation and interaction. This severely limits the value of the content it is trying to protect.

Opponents of DRM calls it “Digital Restriction Management”, probably for good reason, because traditionally DRM attempts to control the use of digital media by preventing access, copying or conversion to unrestricted formats. This is essentially about the control of content, a perfect legit cause, but when pushed hard onto the users often creating resentment and severely impacting the flow of information. Whether to protect value by prevention, or to create value by open interaction, is a delicate balancing act.

As long as there are those who build artificial walls, there are those who break them. To avoid becoming ancient relics, DRM needs to change from its foundation, starting from the mind set.