There has been a lot of talk lately about Digital rights management (DRM) and copy protection, and it’s troubling.

Most reasonable people believe in artists getting paid for their work. But, at the same time, I don’t want to be treated like a criminal if I trade music. Why should it be that the cassette tape still rules—in portability and playability—over digital music? At least, most legal digital music.

A word about DRM
Digital rights management is a broad term referring to technologies used by publishers or copyright owners to control access to, or usage of, digital data or hardware. The term is often confused with copy protection and technical protection measures, which refer to technologies that control or restrict the use and access of digital content on electronic devices with such technologies installed, acting as components of a DRM design.

The use of DRM has been controversial. Advocates argue it is necessary for copyright holders to prevent unauthorized duplication of their work to ensure continued revenue streams. The Free Software Foundation suggests that the use of the word “Rights” is misleading and advises that people use the term “digital restrictions management” instead.

The reason why DRM is problematic is because it often restricts consumers in a way that causes technology to break. For example, in the past if you were to pay for, and download music from the iTunes website, you would be restricted to putting that music on an iPod and could not move it to any other device because of the DRM built into the files.

The times are changing
While CDs are still the most common way people acquire music, digital music services are building momentum. Unfortunately, many of the most popular of these “services” are Peer to Peer (P2P) file-sharing sites, much to the dismay of the music industry and many artists because these services are a free-for-all in the most literal sense.