As part of my involvement with the Open Rights Group, I’ve been asked to help write a two page paper to explain the limits of DRM. The paper is intended to help explain to record industry types why they are wasting their time and money with DRM.
It’s an interesting challenge for a couple of reasons. First, to paraphrase Arthur C. Clark, to most people who aren’t computer experts, computers are a sufficiently advanced technology that it seems like magic. And of course, magic can do anything. Throw in having to have an understanding of the cryptography that underlies a DRM system and the power of a kernel debugger and it’s almost an impossible task.
The second reason is that there are plenty of companies out there making money from designing and selling DRM systems. Those companies have a lot of money riding on convincing people that their DRM systems will work. So, of course, they’re going to tell the industry that it is possible to create a working, foolproof DRM system.
