DRM systems can eliminate this nagging question: Should you go through the trouble of complying with copyright law, or should you just take what you want to use? by David D. Davis Jr. Utter the words "compliance with copy-right law" to librarians, or to most people for that matter, and you may justsee them reach for the antacid medicine. It's not that people who reuse content don'twant to comply; it's just that the process traditionally has been less than user-friendly. But now you can save those antacid tablets for your next trip to the all-you-can-eat buffet, because digital rights management (DRM) is making compliancea whole lot easier to swallow. In fact, in my everyday work at the Copyright ClearanceCenter, I'm one of those folks trying to make digital content management morepalatable, and this undoubtedly includes DRM initiatives.DRM may be a popular new acronym on the intellectual property scene, but its coreconcept has actually been around for hundreds of years. Take for example the storyof Johann Gutenberg, the man who invented the technology to print the pope'sgrants of pardon back in the Middle Ages. Grants of pardon, known as "indulgences,"were given by the papacy for such actions as founding a monastery or going on cru-sade. As documents that promised salvation, or at least avoidance of damnation,these indulgences were very valuable, and therefore the authenticity of such a docu-ment was imperative. After all, questions needed to be answered, such as, Was aprinted indulgence authentic? Was it secure? Did the printer have the right and thepower to create and convey valid copies? Would what was bound at the printer's stillbe "binding in heaven"? Gutenberg is said to have obtained per-mission to reproduce these indulgences from the Archbishop of Mainz, the local pa-pal authority, but without disclosing all the details to him. Gutenberg's invention en-abled more than just the rapid creation of copies, it also created, at a single stroke, theissue of "rights management"--or in this case, perhaps "divine rights management."DRM today takes over where Gutenberg left off. DRM systems are a response to theheightened expectations of information professionals, among others, for more effi-cient transactional licensing of digital content. As professional consumers, librarianswant a convenient way to obtain permissions--where appropriate--in order to law-fully reuse copyrighted works. A rightsholder (e.g., author or publisher), however,might very well expect 1) to have a say over how his or her intellectual property is re-produced, and 2) to be paid any applicable royalties or license fees. DRM systems usecutting-edge technology to implement software applications that facilitate interactionsbetween users and rightsholders. DRM systems therefore attempt to meet the newneeds and expectations of both users andrightsholders of copyrighted content. DRM in the Real World What does it take, in the real world, to linkup the licensing needs of professional information consumers and the content offeringsof professional information producers? My answer, as you probably can guess by now, isDRM. Unfortunately, in the trade and professional literature, the term DRM has oftenbeen reduced to mean merely "document security" or "data protection" or (occasionally)"super-distribution." Sometimes just the payment system is referred to as the DRM. Infact, each of these pieces are component parts of a full DRM solution, as each only con-tributes to managing the relationships and transactions. To function effectively, theDRM has to understand what is being licensed (the work), who is involved in thetransaction (the parties), and the extent of the permission (the right).What is DRM, then? Although variousdefinitions are put forward, functionally speaking, digital rights management (DRM)systems are best understood as databases that streamline the complex relationshipsand transactions among rights, works, and parties.Putting our question "What is DRM?" another way: On the functional level, what sys-tems components are necessary to manage these relationships and transactions effec-tively? Our experience suggests that any meaningful solution will include each ofthese elements, to some degree: * Works-level searching (critical) * Standardized metadata tagging (option-al) * Persistent resource locator (optional) * License creation (critical) * Maintenance of rights-managementinformation (critical) * Access to usage reports (critical) * Document security (optional) * Financial transaction (critical) Ideally, then, the function of DRM isto provide licensing on the fly, as close to the point of content as possible. See the sidebar entitled "Some Companies with DRM Solutions " for a broader look at what's available. Licensing Should Be Simple End-users will sometimes ask, "Why is paying for a license necessary? Can 't we just get what we need from the Internet? " Librarians know that life in the 21st century is not so simple. The risks that an organization faces due to copyright infringement by employees can be intimidating. The constant demand for copyright sessions and workshops at nearly every library conference is good evidence of the high concern that librarians have about this issue. Think about all the instances in your own experience where non-library employees download articles or other materials off the Internet. How common is it for them to go beyond the terms of the publisher's license, and forward and re-forward that content to colleagues or even perhaps customers? Even if your library has a published copyright policy, it might not be enough to mitigate the risk of litigation from an irate author or publisher. It is therefore crucial that information professionals obtain the proper license for any content people need. Given that a grant of permission, or other license, is a sometimes necessary evil, then the route you take to acquire that licensing should be simple and direct. A few years ago, when I was the chief corporate librarian for a large computer company, I was responsible for the administration of dozens of licenses. As the information professional, I felt it was my responsibility to promote a policy of copyright compliance, especially in the (then-) emerging area of digital content. There were a lot of times I had to say "no." The point of a DRM system is to get to "yes" as directly as possible. Let's walk through a typical example of a DRM system in action: As a librarian, you search for an article and identify from its abstract that it meets your end-user's need. Perhaps you are on the publisher's Web site, or at an aggregator's site. When you click on "Purchase Full Text," the DRM kicks in and offers you the option to buy a license or to order a hard copy (or digital reprint). Fill out the online form, if the terms and cost are acceptable, and ... mission accomplished! Your article is made available to you in Adobe PDF, or the reprints are ordered and on their way. Through DRM systems currently in use,such transactional licensing is available now for common formats such as intranets,reprints, CD-ROM, mailings, magazines, Internet, photocopies, newsletters, newspaper,and textbooks. Perhaps the best way I can illustrate howDRM-facilitated licensing can make your job easier is by giving you additional exam-ples. Let's examine three scenarios: 1. As a corporate librarian, you identifyand locate a key article on a subscribersonly site that your organization 's CEO wants to present to the board of directors.Printouts or photocopies will not be suitable; instead, she wants professionalreprints. Your corporate policy also requires you to keep a license on file for thisuse of the content. Fortunately, this publisher provides you with the option you need right on its Web page. At the bottomof the article, you spot the Permissions hyperlink--it takes you to the DRM sys-tem they've chosen. You check the cost and elect to have the PDF version createdon the fly. Next you either print the PDF yourself or you opt to forward the document to a printer for high-quality printing onglossy paper. The result? Your customized reprints arrive within 2 business days, theboard is impressed, and the CEO is delighted. 2. Suppose in the example above, you arealso a content manager for the company's intranet. You have been working with your hu-man resources department and have identified several key chapters from a textbook ondiversity training, which is about to be introduced to all employees. Using the DRM sys-tem on the CD-ROM that accompanies the textbook, you are able to obtain a license Some Companies with Digital Rights Management Solutions Many companies offer portions of DRM for text publishers, as well as for other digital media. Although the vendor field is broad,all providers are not created equal. The following is a partial listing of companies offering DRM to various extents--some employ DRM solutions so you can license their content, while others sell their DRM technologies to content providers. Company Product Emphasis Web site Adobe/Glassbook Adobe Ebook Reader "Streamline paper-to-digital processes" http://www.adobe.com/epaper Alchemedia CleverContent "The leading secure display solution" http://www.alchemedia.com Aries Systems Docurights PDF Store "Pay as you go documents" http://www.docurights.com ContentGuard XrML "The catalyst for the revolution in eContent " http://www.contentguard.com/ePCS.htm Copyright Rightslink "Permissioning at the point of content " http://www.copyright.com Clearance Center Copyright Republication "Facilitating copyright compliance" http://www.copyright.com Clearance Center Licensing Service Digital World Secure online delivery "The Bertelsmann Digital Rights http://www.dwsco.com Services Management company" DigitalGoods Softlock "Unleashing the value of content " http://www.digitalgoods.com DigitalOwl KineticEdge "Package. Host. Syndicate. Sell." http://www.digitalowl.com Intertrust MetaTrust Utility "The root source of trust " http://www.intertrust.com MediaDNA Eluminator "DRM with a difference" http://www.mediadna.com Microsoft MS Reader/ "The pleasure of reading enhanced http://www.microsoft.com/reader Digital Asset Server by the benefits of technology " netLibrary Ebooks "Premier provider of electronic books" http://www.netlibrary.com Reciprocal Digital Clearing Service "Driving the content economy" http://www.contentguard.com/ePCS.htm SealedMedia Softseal "Securely selling on media on the Internet" http://www.sealedmedia.com Vyou.com Vyoufirst "Real-time, Web-based http://www.vyou.com Digital Rights Management" B that unlocks the digital version of thechapters for you, and you post a clean and cleared version of the key chapters on yourintranet site within minutes. 3. As part of a project team, the library isasked to redistribute an important and expensive market research report. Time iscritical, but the language of the license for the report specifically disallows photo-copying. The DRM system, hosted at the publisher's Web site, provides you with anelectronic copy as well as the permission to distribute it, via e-mail, to other project teammembers. In each of these examples, without theDRM to facilitate, the transaction would have taken more time, and the result would havebeen less certain. There might have been no route to "yes." DRM Could Be a Godsend for Rightsholders Rightsholders, such as authors, publish-ers, and literary agents, represent the other side of the coin in DRM systems. Rightsh-olders currently are facing tremendous pressure to respond to permissions requests at on-line speed. After all, survey data shows that professional information consumers wouldgenerally prefer to "do the right thing " and get permission for the content they repro-duce. But many end-users also report that they will only obtain permission if it is quickand easy to do so. "End-users will some-times ask, `Why is paying for a license necessary? Can't we just get what we need from the Internet?'" DRM gives rightsholders the tools theyneed to handle your licensing requests quickly. Contemporary DRM systems areable to handle the complex rights involved in licensing copyrighted content, including (butnot limited to) text, video, animation, audio, photographs, and streaming media. Making DRM Work for You The bottom line is that full-bore DRMsystems, such as Rightslink from the CCC, have taken content licensing to a whole newlevel by further simplifying the process for libraries. Instead of needing to locate the "rights and permissions " pages buried on arightsholder's site somewhere, or to log transactions in batch mode when you'd ratherbe getting real work done, a DRM system like Rightslink brings the permissions di-rectly to you at the point of content. By implementing all of the required elements of fullDRM, these systems allow you to get your job done faster and easier while providingyour library with a mechanism for copyright compliance. It even allows you to track yourlicensing history and billing information online whenever you want, from wherever youneed to. With studies indicating that libraries areusing an ever-greater proportion of digital content (vs. print media), there has neverbeen a greater need for DRM technology. The complexity of administering this web ofrelationships is what makes rights management a field that's not for those who are faintof heart or new to the game. But as good digital rights management systems are emerg-ing, obtaining permissions will hopefully stop being viewed as a "necessary evil." B David D. Davis Jr., a sales engineer at the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), has nearly 20 years of experience in content and intellectual property management. Prior to joining the CCC, he held directorships in several corporate and public libraries. At the Copyright Clearance Center, he initiated a digital rights permissioning service, the Electronic Course Content Service (ECCS), which facilitates distance learning and corporate training initiatives. He is currently responsible for tracking, monitoring, and evaluating trends in the management, protection, and distribution of digital content. He has published several articles on rights management, and delivered presentations to the Special Libraries Association (SLA), Association of Information and Dissemination Centers (ASIDIC), the Grey Literature Conference, and other information organizations. He holds two master's degrees, one in library science and the other in history, and is a long-standing member of SLA. His email address is ddavis@copyright.com. Further Sources of Information on DRM Yahoo! (updated list of companies and products) http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/ Computers/Security_and_Encryption/Digital_Rights_Management__DRM_/ Seybold Report on Internet Publishing http://www.seyboldreports.com/SRIP/about.html Northern Light (http://www.northernlight.com) also carries regular coverage of company news and updated information in the DRM industry, and a wide collection of resources. This article is reprinted in its entirety from the June 2001 issue of Computers in Libraries, with the permission of Information Today, Inc., 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055, 609/654-6266, Web Site: http://www.infotoday.com.