What is DRM

A guide to Digital Rights Management

Digital Music, Mp3’s, downloading and copying to disk. Isn’t this all illegal? No. The only thing that is illegal is download or distributing copyrighted material that you haven’t acquired legitimately. In other words, if you download a track by Robbie Williams and you have not already purchased the CD, you’re breaking the copyright laws. As you can see from the image on the right, not everyone believes that they should pay for music; they seem to think that music belongs to the people and it is a hotly debated issue. Many see DRM as an infringement of their rights. They claim Music is Art, to be appreciated by everyone. Not surprisingly, the majority of music artists disagree.

So is copying CD's illegal?

So you own about 30 years worth of Vinyl, Tape, CD and Minidisk and soon you will learn how to rip it all to MP3 and store it on your iPod and PC. So what do you do with all those CD’s etc? My advice to you is to keep them, that way you are still the legal owner of the music and you can rip it any way you want. Obviously, to distribute your ripped music is against the law unless those you distribute to are also legitimate owners of the same CD/DVD/TAPE/Minidisk etc.

P2P (Peer to Peer) File Sharing Networks.

No doubt, if you have been on the internet a few years, you have probably heard of Napster and KaZaA. Napster was also in the news for some time as it was one of the first P2P software downloads on the internet and became very popular (very quickly!) before the courts descended on it like a ton of bricks. P2P is a way of sharing files over the internet; this includes text files, games, pictures and music. By downloading and using P2P software you are breaking the law because any files you download can also be uploaded from your computer by other users of the same P2P package anywhere in the world. Yes, that’s right! You’re inadvertently distributing music!

Can you get caught?

On a global scale we are looking at millions of users downloading and distributing music, to the point where it’s not difficult to find the track you want, and with the advent of broadband, it can be on your computer in less than a minute. The music industry has tried hard to clamp down on this kind of copyright infringement but it’s difficult to see how they can possibly catch everyone for downloading music. The difficulty, being that the new generations of file sharing networks, do not rely on a central server to keep track of files and sharing. These genuine decentralized networks offer the companies that produce the P2P software a fair degree of immunity.

Legitimate downloads?

The Apple(tm) Store offers around 2 millions songs and a good few thousand audio books. Apple(tm) claim to have the largest legal download catalogue in the world. As Apple(tm) is desperate to get on the good side of the music industry giants, all tracks have embedded DRM coded restrictions which mean your downloads can only be played on 5 computers. However, you can burn the tracks to as many CD’s as you like. All files sold on the music store are AAC files and by embedding DRM Apple(tm) hope to stop unauthorized file sharing. When you set up your account with the Apple(tm) Music Store your computer is authorized to play the tracks. By typing in your username and password you can then download onto four other computers. If you want to play your music on a sixth computer you need to de-authorise one of the other five by selecting De-authorise computer from the Advanced menu in iTunes.

So why is it legal to download from iTunes?

The store began after Apple signed deals with the five major record labels at the time, EMI, Universal, Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment and BMG (the latter two would later merge to form Sony BMG). Music by more than 600 independent label artists was added later, the first being Moby on July 29, 2003. The only other way you will get Free Mp3's is from band sites. Lots of third party free player like Music Match Jukebox have become paid services now but they offer very good value for money. You can also try services listed within our Downloads pages or search google for other services. Please be aware of what you are downloading and if in doubt seek professional, legal advice on what is a breach of the copyright laws.