Re: European Commission considers mandatory digital rights management

Dave Parrott wrote:
> The problem I have in discussing DRM is that
> most people assume it is all about "locking up"
> content with encryption and restricting access to
> it.  It's a fair misconception, given the case
> history to date.  However, the more enlightened
> are trying to move away from that and towards
> an enabling infrastructure, built from a mixture
> of legal, commercial, and technical tools, that
> will promote business and improve the consumers
> lot too. If that sounds too idealistic, then perhaps
> we should give up on digital commerce altogether.
> Personally, I think there is much positive work to
> do.  DRM is in its infancy.  There have been false
> starts.  I hope that everyone's voice is heard by
> legislators and standards makers.
> ...It won't go away, so let's make it work...

JSE: I quite agree with Dave --- this must be about finding ways to work
together to build an accessible, enabling, trustable infrastructure upon which
to release and enjoy information. An infrastructure that embodies these values
should NOT be thought of as one-sided; indeed, imagine an environment in which
individuals enjoy the very same fine-grained policy enforcement capability that
is usually only discussed in the DRM context.

Unfortunately, when people hear "trusted platform," they tend to only think of a
particular, narrow application scenario, rather than considering the richness
that a trustable infrastructure, characterized by the pervasive ability to
create, transform and experience "data with rules," could provide.

Indeed, these issues will *not* go away; they will only multiply. One step is to
work purposefully towards standards int he hard areas; specifically, in DRM we
need to actively search for the agreeable points of interaction between systems
and solutions. These points of interaction ppint to where the standards will be
found.

| John S. Erickson, Ph.D.
| Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
| PO Box 1158, Norwich, Vermont USA 05055
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Received on Tuesday, 5 March 2002 16:28:40 UTC