What Is Digital Rights Management? Definition, Benefits, and Best Practices

Digital rights management encompasses a set of hardware and software technologies designed to control how we use, edit, and share content or information assets via online or offline channels. DRM also includes technological protection measures, as it intends to protect the copyright for technology-enabled content. This article discusses the ins and outs of digital rights management and best practices for 2021.

Table of Contents

• • What Is Digital Rights Management (DRM)?
  • 7 Key Benefits of Digital Rights Management (DRM)
  • Top 8 Best Practices for Digital Rights Management in 2021

What Is Digital Rights Management (DRM)? 

Digital rights management is a set of hardware and software technologies designed to control how we use, edit, and share content/information assets online or offline. DRM is also called technological protection measures (TPM), as it intends to protect the copyright for technology-enabled content.

As our consumption of digital content grows, complexities around copyright management grow with it. In the early days of computing, you had copy-protected floppy disks that restricted users from storing a copy of the content on a local device. The definition of digital rights management took on new dimensions with the rise of OTT and cloud-based content sharing. Today, nearly every piece of content you consume, from iTunes to Netflix, carries a specific DRM protocol. DRM extends to enterprise content like intellectual property, confidential records, etc. as well. 

In 2019, the DRM market was worth $2.94 billion globally, expected to more than double by 2025, at a CAGR of 12.65%. This healthy growth pace indicates the need for digital rights management services and solutions protecting enterprise and consumer-facing content from unethical access. This exclusive explainer talks about the definition of digital rights management, why you need it, and eight best practices for getting started with DRM in 2021. 

You can implement DRM for: 

• Copyrighted multimedia content like audio, video, images
• Copyrighted software like games, operating systems, applications
• Confidential documents, like bank statements, company financial records
• IP assets like product plans, diagrams, patents, specification sheets
• Government documents like legal blueprints, policy documents
• Smart hardware like lightbulbs, automobiles, kitchen appliances
• Licensed eBooks like online libraries, eBook stores, digital subscriptions, etc

The definition of Digital Rights Management extends to both online and offline content. In other words, DRM is applicable regardless of whether you stream a movie on Netflix or purchase a Blu-Ray DVD. 

Also Read: Top 7 Digital Rights Management Software in 2021

Let’s now look at some common restrictions DRM introduces to a content repository. 

1. Copy prevention – This is among the oldest types of DRM. The user can view or consume the content from the primary channel (streaming platform, DVD, website, etc.) but cannot make a copy. An online publisher could enforce DRM on its website to prevent plagiarism. 
2. Copy restrictions – This is similar to copy prevention, but the user is allowed to make a certain number of copies in certain conditions. For instance, you might be allowed up to three copies of an eBook, but not for commercial purposes. 
3. Password protection – This is a simple but highly effective DRM technique, where the user must know a unique password to access a document. This type of DRM is frequently used by financial services providers to keep consumer transactions safe. 
4. Watermarks – This is a free Digital Rights Management technique that prevents users from reusing visual content as their own. Watermarks are regularly used for stock photographs, GIFs, and videos, enabling users to pursue content libraries without using them for commercial purposes. 
5. Device control – This advanced technology prevents users from opening a file unless they are on an approved device. Enterprise DRM relies heavily on device-based control, as does certain OTT media. For example, device manufacturers must obtain DRM certification from Netflix. 

As you can see, DRM is essential to safe and secure content exchanges in the digital era, curbing the risk of piracy, copyright infringement, plagiarism, and enterprise IP violations significantly. Technology makes it incredibly easy to copy vast volumes of information in a few milliseconds and share it via online platforms, reaching thousands of others worldwide. DRM installs that necessary safeguard, ensuring that every content exchange is ethical and legal. 

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To achieve this, you can leverage the following DRM techniques: 

• Restrictive licensing – The content provider creates a license that legally prevents users from using it for commercial or public distribution purposes. Technically, the user might still be able to reuse the contentOpens a new window , but they would be legally liable. For example, a stock image has both a watermark as well as a restrictive license. The restrictive license makes users legally liable for using the image in unethical ways, while the watermark makes the act near-impossible. 
• Digital trust infrastructure – Here, trust is baked into the underlying digital infrastructure, maintaining a line of visibility and accountability on how, why, and when content is shared. This technique gives users the autonomy to play around with content as they wish while keeping the reigns of control squarely in the hands of the content provider. Digital trust infrastructure is extremely relevant for enterprises, particularly with the advent of blockchain technology. 
• One way hashing – This is a cryptography technique that prevents content manipulation. It takes digital content as the input and generates a final output message for user consumption. If the content is altered in any way, the output message will change, thereby revealing that the content is inauthentic. One way hashing is used to verify digital content and assure users/consumers of its untampered nature. 
• Secure communication protocols – Communication protocols like SSL and TSL maintain the sanctity of information flowing through the internet. It prevents tampering, making sure that only safe, authentic content reaches the user. Secure communication protocols are a DRM staple and must be part of your content technology stack, either using a private or a public CMS landscape. 
• Timebound decryption keys – Encrypting data is an excellent way to keep it out of unethical hands. You can supplement this with time-bound decryption keys that protect digital rights. The key would allow users to decrypt the content for a specific period of time, as specified by the licensing/purchase terms. For example, if you buy an analyst report, you could have three months’ access, beyond which you would need an additional fee. 

Apart from these techniques, there’s an entire field dedicated to Digital Rights Management for OTT content. Piracy of Over-the-top or OTT media is a massive problem. One reportOpens a new window found that 51% of sports fans use unregulated or illegal services, despite 89% owning subscriptions. Content providers use DRM platforms and protocols like Google Widevine, Microsoft PlayReady, Adobe Primetime, and Apple FairPlay to address this. Depending on your content format and consumption channel, you’d have to comply with one or more of these protocols. 

For example, any content that’s shareable via Chromecast supports PlayReady and Widevine protocols, while Amazon Fire TV is only PlayReady compatible. 

If you are working with streaming content or looking to enter commercial OTT, it is advisable to partner with an experienced Digital Rights Management services provider such as encoding.com, Vualto, or PalyCon, among others, who can help navigate these intricacies.

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7 Key Benefits of Digital Rights Management (DRM)

DRM isn’t only about data, information, or content security. There are several ways you can benefit from investing in a robust DRM solution:

Benefits of Digital Rights Management

1. It helps monetize digital content more effectively. 

Widespread privacy of digital content hampers monetization to a significant degree. Users are likely to opt for free access, even if it is unethical unless there are the appropriate checks and balances. Today, OTT platforms ensure that nearly every consumer worldwide can access their desired content ethically. And DRM helps to reinforce this. Another important benefit is restricting content to select audiences, such as age-specific content consumption or consumption, as per regional censorship laws. 

2. It maintains your right to ownership. 

Without DRM, it would be difficult to track down the original source/author amid global distribution. This is particularly true for enterprise IP, where a question might arise around the source’s authenticity. While consumer-facing multimedia content is easier to tag in terms of ownership, scientific, technical, and industry-specific content assets require a clear stamp of ownership and a controlled line of distribution to ensure its proper usage. 

3. It helps to enforce copyright laws. 

Even if you’ve labeled an image as “not meant for commercial use,” search engines make the image readily available to every PC owner in the world. Even if the image is copy-protected, someone might take s screenshot and embed it without requisite reference/payment. A DRM technique like watermarks enforces copyright laws in real-world use cases. 

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4. It raises awareness. 

In the digital era, users can become desensitized to issues around content ownership, revenue generation, and accountability of access. The physical restrictions that are naturally in place when you borrow a book from a library and make one or two photocopies no longer apply. A user might extract a heavily researched essay from a pirated eBook and share it publicly on their personal website – it would take only a few minutes. When users face DRM restrictions, they gain a much-needed awareness of author rights and fair usage policies. 

5. It is directly linked to your business growth. 

DRM prevents competitors from getting hold of confidential information or intellectual property. Take a pharmaceutical company, for example. It might have a patent in the works for a revolutionary new therapy, but the lack of DRM mechanisms could lead to a competitor acquiring the IP and getting to market faster. Or, a bank undergoing an internal investigation might have sensitive documents revealed publicly, thereby damaging its market reputation. DRM-enabled enterprise content management mitigates such risks. 

6. It simplifies third-party partnerships. 

One of the biggest concerns when entering into a third-party partnership is data security. There’s always a fear that the partner will not follow internal data security best practices and endanger your trade secrets. According to research, 53% of organizationsOpens a new window have experienced a data breach due to a third party, costing $7.5 million on an average. DRM eliminates this risk, letting you forge meaningful partnerships without worries around data security. 

7. It aids in compliance with regional laws. 

Regulations might state that users can open a file only in a specific location. This applies primarily to governments, government agencies, and government contractors. DRM techniques control how and where the user chooses to open a file – you could even couple this with device-specific DRM to further cut down the possibility of non-compliance. 

These are among the primary benefits of Digital Rights Management or DRM. 

Ultimately, digital rights management boils down to:

• Protecting revenue sources by blocking free use and unethical distribution 
• Protecting trade secrets to maintain market leadership and continued business growth 

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8 Best Practices for Digital Rights Management in 2021 

Interestingly, you don’t necessarily need complex technologies or dedicated Digital Rights Management services to get started. Depending on your use case, simple measures like password protecting a PDF before sharing or adding a watermark on an Instagram post could aid in fair usage. If you plan on getting started with DRM in 2021 – at whatever level – remember these ten best practices: 

1. Build a content selection framework before implementing DRM. 

Not all content requires DRM. In fact, in some cases, DRM measures can prevent your content from achieving the reach and engagement level you want. That’s why it is critical to have a content selection framework in place before DRM implementation. For example, a small-scale production house might want to deploy DRM for a new movie, but not for its trailer. 

Indiscriminate deployment of DRM techniques will impede shareability. Consider a presentation deck on diversity & inclusion. You want the deck to reach the maximum number of people possible, within and outside your company. You want social media chatter, engagement, and reach – here, a complex DRM mechanism like passwords or device-based authentication would only get in the way. 

Ask yourself the following questions when selecting content for DRM: 

• Is it monetizable/will it lead to monetization for me? 
• Is it monetizable/will it lead to monetization for a competitor? 
• Could uncontrolled distribution breach internal, industry, or regional regulations? 

2. Maximize investments using free digital rights management tools.

It’s a common misconception that only the most expensive or premium DRM tools can protect your content from unethical use. In reality, DRM is just as much about the mindset as it is about the technology – asking employees to password-protect every document can be equally effective in restricting distribution, using only free DRM tools or existing technologies like MS Word. 

There are several free tools you can use for Digital Rights Management, like InstallAware and Drumlin Publishing. InstallAware is meant for application DRM, protecting your apps without changing the source code. Drumlin is a PDF security software that lets you set permissions and add watermarks to PDF documents. 

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3. Conduct company-wide surveys to obtain user buy-in. 

Enterprise DRM is more about securing data exchanges than restricting access. This makes it vital to obtain buy-in and active support from your intended user base – your employees. Ineffective DRM will lead to content sharing bottlenecks down the line and even necessitate an expensive DRM overhaul. 

A good rule of thumb is to form a focus group with representatives from your primary content audiences in the enterprise. Trial different DRM scenarios with this focus group, conducting detailed surveys to gauge their quality of experience and possible impacts on productivity. Once you have a viable blueprint for DRM implementation in place, carry out a short company-wide survey to check on the pulse of your workforce. 

In case of failure to obtain buy-in from a sizable user base, it is best to revisit your DRM plans sooner rather than later. 

4. Integrate with other data management infrastructure.

Like most technologies, DRM works best when used along with associated solutions such as data loss prevention (DLP), digital asset management (DAM), and content management systems (CMS). 

A DLP tool will restrict data sharing in certain conditions to prevent potential data loss or leakage. You can combine this with DRM so that the protocols are enforced when sharing data within the confines of your DLP ambit.

One of the best practices to follow is to have a dedicated “data owner” in place who looks after data loss, rights management, and the usage and distribution strategy in general. This owner could be a single stakeholder in senior management, a team specifically designed to look after safe data or content use, or even a third-party expert who brings years of expertise in data management best practices. But the foundational step to gaining from this unified view and management is integrating DRM with the other components of your technology stack. 

Also Read: What Is Multi-Factor Authentication? Definition, Key Components, and Best Practices

5. Be mindful of the downsides of digital rights management.

DRM does have its critics. One might argue that DRM infringes upon the basic ownership rights of someone who has legally purchased content. Let’s say you have purchased an eBook – you might argue for your right to read it on a device of your choice. On a less philosophical level, complex DRM workflows can hinder the user experience, discourage utilization, and even prompt consumers to switch to a competing platform. 

Companies can conduct surveys (see point 3) to address these downsides, aligning the DRM technology infrastructure to UX expectations. 

6. Divide the compliance burden between users and IT.

Placing the entire burden of DRM compliance on users will multiply enterprise risk. Even as the DRM techniques we mentioned restrict how employees use and share content, they are also meant to raise awareness. Without understanding what Digital Rights Management is and why it is so important, employees might find workarounds to the restrictions and dilute its impacts (e.g., sharing document passwords with a family member). 

That’s why it is good to divide the compliance burden between users and your IT function. IT can weave DRM into its larger IT policy framework, taking ownership of enforcing it across the user base. Employees, in turn, are accountable to IT as well as to the organization as a whole. 

Also Read: What Is Biometric Authentication? Definition, Benefits, and Tools

7. Minimize shadow IT and unmapped distribution channels.

Shadow IT has always been a nightmare for data owners, making it difficult to track data sharing and utilization across these hidden channels. Curbing shadow IT can help reduce your DRM burden to an extent. 

With so many of us working from home, shadow IT is a massive problem for nearly every large-to-mid-sized enterprise. Employees frequently use their personal devices for work, installing SaaS apps that may not be compliant with the enterprise’s IT policy. Sharing files, documents, and data on these channels fall under shadow IT, which is difficult to monitor. As a result, enterprises must invest heavily in DRM – widening coverage beyond content assets that pass the selection framework we discussed in point 1. 

Reduction shadow IT will shrink your DRM loads, thereby helping to route your investments in the right direction. 

8. Make room for scalability and flexibility as the landscape evolves.

As content formats, distribution channels, and DRM technologies become more sophisticated, your approach to Digital Rights Management must evolve in tandem. Also, your DRM should be adaptable to business growth and new business models. To take a simple example, a research firm might want to move from static content assets to dynamic/topical content reports. The latter will require a wholly different DRM solution from the former, such as time-bound decryption keys. 

As per this best practice, companies must research emerging DRM technologies like point-to-point protection and blockchain to stay ahead of unethical players. Point-to-point protection enables the seamless authentication of high-definition video content without online connectivity, maintaining the consumer’s user experience. Blockchain is another exciting DRM technology, given its transparent and immutable nature. 

For example, tech and media giant Sony is already developing a blockchain solution for IP Digital Rights Management. 

When it comes to DRM, learn from your mistakes. As consumer sentiment around digital content and employee expectations in different working models evolve, companies must keep pace. DRM shouldn’t get in the way of engaging experiences or productivity. Fortunately, today’s billion-dollar market equips you with the requisite Digital Rights Management services and tools to achieve this at optimal investments. 

Which DRM technique do you will be most relevant in 2021? Tell us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!