DRM Restrictions : Protecting Your Content in the Digital Age

This will not be wrong to say that with the increasing creation of digital files like video, audio, or images, the need for direct rights management has become mandatory. It is not just about protecting your digital files or intellectual property; it refers to the use of technology & systems to limit the use of digital material protected by copyright. 

DRM restrictions

DRM stands for Direct Rights Management. The rights protect the intellectual property, digital files, and digital content of digital content creators. It is designed to take action against a person who prints, copies, or shares someone’s content without her/his permission. Additionally, it also used to keep track of the use of digital files, so that providers could easily record their spread of digital files. Content creators have complete control over their work, and they can also protect their copyrights.

Deciphering video DRM solutions

Let’s start with a short overview. Video DRM solutions protect the video files from unauthorized access and piracy. It is designed to stop unauthorized activities like piracy, copying, and sharing. Video DRM safeguards your digital content and ensures content creators have complete access to and control over your work and ownership. 

How does it work?

• Encryption: Your video content is safeguarded by encoding it with a unique DRM key, making it only accessible with the correct decryption key.
• Licensing: Authorized users get a license that grants them access to the decryption key via purchase or subscription.
• Content Delivery: Encrypted video is securely provided through streaming platforms, or CDNs.
• Decryption and Playback: Authorized users’ devices check their license with the DRM system to obtain the decryption key, which allows playback. Encrypting your videos provides further protection against unwanted copying and dissemination.

Direct rights management is applied on

• Downloadable like eBooks and Whitepapers
• Software and applications
• Images and graphics
• Music audio, and more

Importance of direct rights management

Due to the architecture of the internet, most digital files are easily shared, downloaded, and created. However, digital assets meant for sale or licensing to businesses and consumers lose marketability in these conditions. Furthermore, enterprises that create such assets face financial issues without the ability to govern transmission, necessitating the purchase or subscription of content access to ensure solvency.

Benefits of direct rights management (DRM)

• Protection of intellectual property: Digital rights management (DRM) protects intellectual property in today’s internet-driven environment. Businesses, particularly in entertainment, are increasingly reliant on digital commodities. While physical sales are declining, digital purchases and streaming services continue to dominate. DRM inhibits illicit sharing and resale of digital content, ensuring that firms retain earnings.
• Protect unauthorized access: DRM, in most cases, prevents users from getting their hands on a usable, transferable, high-fidelity copy of whatever file or digital asset is being protected. And by preventing users from stealing this content, DRM reduces the possibility of unauthorized uses of that content. DRM blocks users from accessing usable content, transferring copies, and reducing the risk of unauthorized content use.
• Aware users about their rights: the main concern is that users don’t know about their copyright and intellectual property laws and how they work. However, people who pirate digital content often know it’s wrong. And that’s where DRM restrictions help them understand what’s allowed and what’s not. 
• Ensures regulatory compliance: Online piracy is frequently the result of a misunderstanding of copyright and intellectual property rules. DRM helps people understand what is allowed and what is not.
• Protect copyright and licensing: It also assures regulatory compliance, which is essential in nations with diverse laws. Streaming services, such as Netflix, operate differently in the United Kingdom and the United States due to differences in copyright and licensing. Geolocation limits, for example, help enforce compliance not only in the entertainment industry, but also in healthcare, where it secure electronic health information to fulfil regulatory standards.

Who gains from digital rights management?

Direct rights management can be used for various purposes, and many people and industries can leverage the benefits of this service.

• Anyone who is creating intellectual property, whether they are authors, content creators, or composers, can benefit from DRM. If they want to monetize their creative works, they can also use it by implementing DRM software. 
• Those who belong to the streaming industry, like OTT and VOD digital media providers, can also protect their digital files by leveraging DRM. DRM protects and ensures the right people access the right content, which is core to the business model.
• In the application industry, you can safeguard your video games, mobile apps, and software applications. You can prevent your own product from being distributed. 
• Businesses dealing with confidential documents, trade secrets, and otherwise proprietary or sensitive data

The Final Word

DRM restrictions have grown increasingly significant in the digital world. It can be used for a variety of digital materials, including movies, audio, papers, eBooks, and more. If you use direct rights management software, it will place various limits on who has access and who does not. It empowers people to have control over their own creations while also allowing you to monitor their distribution. 

Simply put, DRM is crucial because it protects the intellectual property of content creators, musicians, OTT and VOD video streaming companies, and other entities. Direct rights management prevents piracy. That is why most video entrepreneurs are now aiming to compulsorily integrate DRM and other content protection techniques into their video hosting platforms.

Shalabh Agarwal - Co-founder, Enveu

Shalabh Agarwal is the co-founder of Enveu, one of the fastest-growing App automation and OTT solutions providers. Shalabh oversees the global businesses for Enveu and has been working in the Technology and SaaS space for over 15 years.