DRM must die


With Amazon debuting their beta MP3 download site, the time has come for libraries to really start thinking about the future of digital.

I gave it a whirl yesterday. Amazon's selection isn't the best, and their classification scheme is weak, but the purchase and transfer parts of the deal worked pretty well. And that's on a mac, folks. The files were imported without a hitch into my iTunes library. There is a small program Amazon has you download to facilitate the transfer into your music library, but that wasn't painful like Overdrive's system is. Bring on the price wars!

Finally, cheap, easy to download DRM-free MP3s. eMusic is another website offering up DRM free files. What's more, they have audiobooks available. So, how will libraries get into the act? Will we buy the files, burn a disc, and then circ the disc? What about circulating iPod fatties? What are we going to do? Is there anything we can do that doesn't break the law?

If we put the material on devices, and circulate the devices, why is that considered different from a library buying a book and circulating it? If the worry is that we might put the same title on two devices at the same time, why can't we pay a simple licensing fee to do that sort of thing? Why does DRM have to be involved?

Having said DRM must die, maybe I should qualify that. The way it works now sucks. Maybe we should revisit the idea of DRM working something like PGP. The product is unfettered. Perhaps we could circulate it, with our own key pair, based on patron barcode and PIN, as opposed to a platform-dependent, software-dependent, model. I know that it's been thought about, but I can't say what the problems with that model are. Or how about a simple DRM, that opens up with the PGP, and shuts down three weeks later. It registers renewals on the library server. The server keeps tabs on residuals, and we pay the publishers that. One price to purchase the title, a lower price to renew, since that's no sweat off the publisher's back at all. We need to create an open source, secure, cross-platform compliant, transaction method that doesn't line anyone's pockets, or tie us into a single vendor.

Posted: Thu - September 27, 2007 at 01:26 PM      

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