All Party Internet Group and the rise of Digital Rights Management

By Alex Singleton | 12 January 2006

I was encouraged to make a submission to the UK Parliament's All Party Internet Group which is conducting an inquiry into "digital rights management" (DRM). DRM is, in theory, a way of protecting digital content like music and movies, preventing it from being shared over the internet.

The problem with DRM, as I explain in my brief submission, is that it does not work. All it does is annoy ordinary consumers who find themselves being locked into a particular vendor's products.

I conclude by saying:

As consumers get hurt by DRM, they will be increasingly vocal against it. There will be TV programmes featuring consumers who have spent £2000 on music from the iTunes Music Store and lost it all when their hard disk crashed. Consumers will ultimately rebel. There will be boycotts of DRM-protected music. DRM will be removed.

Download the submission (PDF)