How do drm work

Without DRM you have no way of preventing people who have access to your intellectual property from doing just exactly what they want with it. Digital Rights Management enables publishers to control not only who receives their content but what they can do with it. Such controls include:. In addition, DRM enables publishers to log use so they can view data on when content was used i. DRM protected refers to any file that has DRM controls applied to it to prevent copying, editing, and unauthorized distribution of content.

This will also include encryption to prevent unauthorized access, and licensing controls to authorize access and permissions.

See why thousands of companies use Locklizard to safeguard their documents and increase revenue streams. It is popular in the music, movie, and ebook industries to control content distribution, prevent unauthorized use, and protect revenue streams.

Whilst many end users paying a few dollars for a song, movie, or ebook, are against the use of DRM many users say if they have paid for something they should be able to do with it as they wish — this of course if not the content owners view , it is more readily acceptable in the business world protecting high value reports and content available to members only.

DRM is used by many organizations internally to protect confidential information , share documents securely with third parties, and track document use to identify leaks.

Some online systems where document controls and access can be altered in real time are sometimes referred to as Active Rights Management systems, but essentially they are all the same thing. How does DRM work? This encrypts the content so it can only be viewed by someone with the correct decryption key see document encryption , and lets Publishers choose which DRM controls they want to apply i. A classic example of a cloud based DRM system using a Web Viewer is a secure data room — see why dataroom security is NOT adequate for secure document sharing.

With an installed viewer, these keys are locked to authorized devices so that they cannot be shared with other users. It is vital that decryption keys are not exposed to users i. Additional checks are made to the DRM license server as and when required, such as checking for new access rights. There are numerous approaches to DRM and continual efforts to develop new methods. Many DRM tools operate through encryption, or computer code embedded in the digital content, to limit access or use. These tools can control the number of times, devices, people, or time periods that the content can be accessed or installed.

In his article What is Digital Rights Management? Dingledy outlines the following DRM tools and processes that deter illegal use of copyrighted material:. Many creators of digital content employ multiple DRM strategies to restrict or control the use of their works.

DRM technology appears on a range of digital materials, from videos, music, and ebooks, to proprietary business information, database subscriptions, and software.

Digimarc also embeds an invisible ID, or watermark, in the asset that makes it possible to find and track unauthorized online use. Digimarc technology can also streamline product workflows in our omnichannel world. A barcode ID can be applied to individual items and packaging, and scanned for authentication — accelerating products through the supply chain. An integration between the Collective and FADEL Rights Cloud software tracks licensing and distribution rights for music, images, videos, and apps on specific devices.

It monitors all of the rights related to a specific piece of content and can shut down a campaign that reaches its distribution or royalty limit, based on where and how that content has been used. The figure below illustrates this process. Though there are many DRM systems available to protect video content, we only need to worry about The Big Three for supporting the most popular web browsers, devices, and set-top boxes:.

This compatibility chart shows a sampling of popular platforms and their compatibility with these DRM systems. See here for more details. Packaging Content To prevent content from being copied or played back by unauthorized players or devices, DRM requires content to be encrypted.

This can be done as part of the transcoding process, or assets can be encrypted and packaged after the fact. Some platforms and CDNs also support just-in-time encryption and packaging of assets as they are requested by players. You can generate these keys and IDs yourself, or use the tools provided by your license server to generate them automatically. The keys and IDs, along with a few other parameters, are also used to encrypt and package the content.

The following Zencoder example job illustrates how to encode, encrypt and package content for all three DRM systems, with further description below:. This job has three mp4 encodes mpk, mpk, and mpk , which are then used as the source for both the HLS and DASH outputs. Once your content is encrypted and packaged, it needs to be transferred to your origin server or CDN for streaming to your users.

Download PDF Version. Learn More about Our Software. If you have ever been on social media, LinkedIn, or even had access to a shared drive on a corporate network or Intranet, you know how easy it is to share content in the digital age.

Documents, images, videos and more can all be uploaded, downloaded, and viewed with the click of a button. This has made things easier for businesses trying to get things done, and made sharing content with paid subscribers faster and more efficient by going digital and distributing their content online.

However, it also puts companies at greater risk to have their intellectual property shared with unauthorized users which negatively affects their revenue and the bottom line. Never has there been more of a need for a digital rights management DRM solution than there is today. You might ask yourself, what is a DRM solution and why do we need one?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. Regardless of your industry, you need a better solution in place to safeguard your intellectual property. DRM solutions are software programs created to help companies protect and control their valuable digital content, whether it's documents, videos, images or audio files. Most DRM solutions today are antiquated because they still rely on clunky 3rd party apps or plug-ins for users to download before they can access the DRM protected content.

A modern, quality DRM solution does not rely on such measures. As Tech Target states:.