Proposal: How to do DRM

Waethorn wrote in with the following complete story via our news submit:

I like to bring up topics that can generate lots of feedback….so here goes:

I had brought up the same thought on Paul Thurrott’s WinInformant (www.wininformant.com) and lots of opinion was thrown around there too (Hi guys, if you’re reading this) but I won’t get into all of that.

One of the things I brought up was a possible way to do DRM "right".

Let me get into a bit of back story that got me thinking about this:

I’ve looked at some marketing stuff from Microsoft recently because I’m a system builder, I run a computer store, and I registered myself as a Microsoft Partner for free to get some of their marketing and sales resources. One of the things that they bring up is the point to demo live software whenever possible, because talking about software and it’s functionality just doesn’t work to get the sale (I have to add, marketing resources for partners are amazing).

"The customer needs to experience the software first-hand without reduced functionality during the trial" is a phrase that Microsoft uses on several marketing sheets. What that means is that trials should only be limited by time, not in WHAT you can do during that time. That got me thinking….

The same can be said about music, and I think this is where the music industry is failing with online sales – previews are usually of low-quality, or are 30secs or less so many average consumers won’t buy them because they can’t experience the entire song.

Also, with trial software that can be unlocked, it’s much easier for the end-user to purchase because the software is already installed on their drive. Here’s a real world example of it: I’ve noticed that I’m getting customers coming back to purchase Office 2007 because I’m offering the 60-day trial installation on all of the new systems that I sell. After using the new 2007 versions of Office, they see the value in it, and they purchase the software before their trial expires. I’d say about 80% of the customers that buy systems that I sell that don’t purchase Office immediately, are buying SOME version of Microsoft Office 2007 shortly after the fact, so this is obviously at least some proof that the concept does work.

As for music, streaming is an ok way to prevent abuse of a free preview, but I think what the music industry needs to do is offer full-quality, full-length DRM-wrapped song previews for download. The music industry would likely want to restrict the audio to a limited number of plays (say 3), with no CD burning and no transfering to other computers or devices.

Now, what would be much better for the end-user is to be able to purchase and completely unlock that DRM wrapper so that the music no longer has any restriction.

The whole point is to offer it as one single-download with a DRM wrapper, but only until the purchase is made. Buy the song – no more DRM.

"Restrict what should be restricted – the previews, NOT the purchases."

This would simplify the entire online music experience both for users and for system admins, because it also reduces bandwidth and storage requirements for online music stores because there’s only one download per song and a "simple" DRM wrapper.

Of course, security needs to be tightened down on the actual preview-mode DRM wrapper so that people can’t easily crack it and get free music, but there are extra methods to ensure that – TPM modules and "encrypted audio path". "Encrypted audio path" is the term I’ve coined (at least, I’ve never heard it used before) to imply a protection system wherein the audio stream is completely encrypted up to a speaker connection, much like the way it’s employed with HD DVD/BluRay on Windows Vista. This needs to be implemented at the driver level also, to prevent "stream copying" (sorry, but I’m still trying to stay legal with this). This is a REQUIREMENT by those governing bodies, and although people are upset that it requires new HDCP-compliant hardware to get it to work, it is not something that Microsoft had a choice over – if they didn’t comply, they couldn’t support either standard. Sorry, but it’s true, and Microsoft isn’t "evil" over this, unlike what the folks at BadVista.org would like to think. If Linux and/or OS X ever supports either format, to do it legally, they need to do the same thing. I’m sure Sony or Toshiba, etc. would have no qualms in pursuing legal action over someone that didn’t follow their policies too.

Anyway, the problem with utilizing TPM modules is that not every system has them, so "encrypted audio path" is quite a ways away. I don’t advocate that purchases be restricted, but it’s something that could help prevent piracy of full-quality previews. I think once TPM modules become standard, IF they are only utilized to prevent piracy of freebies and NOT to prevent the purchasers choice of what he/she wants to do with their PURCHASED music, it would no longer be "ethical" for companies to bypass that protection (ahem, Slysoft) because it only advocates piracy at that point.

So what do you think?

Obviously someone will say something like "you can’t protect it forever" or "it doesn’t matter – someone will crack it" or some other shpeel. Piracy is wrong and no argument you can make in it’s favour can justify it.

Still, I think this is the direction we need to take online music sales. It still gives plenty of protection against music thieves (on both a software, and a hardware level), eliminates restrictions on purchasers, is easier to maintain on a network-level, and helps to introduce new music to consumers by offering them the ability to download full-length, full-quality previews, which should hopefully jumpstart the music industry. Overall, I think this could be a win-win strategy.

I’m sure that the music industry would have one nagging question that I’ll leave you with though: "How do you prevent people from just purchasing once and spreading all the music online?"

Opinions are welcome.

Thanks to all that read my other article too!

Hopefully this will challenge people to take a look at DRM in a different way.

Thanks Waethorn for taking the time to write in with this detailed submit.