Better Digital Rights Management for Paid Content With Watermarking and ‘Lightweight’ DRM

Digital Rights Management, or DRM, is a major concern for all premium content publishers. But how do you balance the need to protect your

Digital Rights Management, or DRM, is a major concern for all premium content publishers. But how do you balance the need to protect your content with customer satisfaction and user-friendly experiences?One way may be through watermarking. Recently installed in J.K Rowling’s Pottermore.com eBook collection, the technology lets the publisher “personalize” or watermark each purchase with the time of purchase and name of the purchaser. This then allows publishers to track any copyright infringement.But at the same time, purchasers can download the eBook up to eight times, allowing parents to install the eBook on multiple devices for multiple kids. The software stipulates that the “kids” must be under 18; it’s hard to see how they plan to enforce this rule — or even why. Allowing families to share eBooks the same way they would print books, even if the family members are all over 18, seems like a better customer-relations policy.Meanwhile, the International Digital Publishing Forum is exploring the use of “lightweight” DRM, which is a bit stricter than watermarking. Basically, users would have to enter a password – usually an email address or credit card number – to download shared content, which would discourage over-sharing. But, according to paidContent, the technology would forbid downloading the content onto different devices, a clear draw-back for users.However, all in all, both solutions are good for sites with eBook subscriptions or one-off sales, even if neither solution is perfect.

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