[Ecommerce] INDICARE: issue of DRMs and Consumer Concerns is beginning to draw attention

[Manon Ress]

http://www.indicare.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=3D101

The issue of DRMs and Consumer Concerns is beginning to draw attention
By: INDICARE Team on: 27/05/05

First Supplement of the INDICARE State-of-the-Art Report released.

The issue of DRMs and Consumer Concerns is beginning to draw attention.
This is one conclusion of the first supplement of the INDICARE
State-of-the-Art Report. After the INDICARE State-of-the-Art Report,
published in December 2004, has provided a first overview of the social,
technical, legal and economic discussion about Digital Rights Management
(DRM) solutions, the INDICARE-team continued to monitor the developments
in this sector. The present supplement reports on new developments since
December 2004. It also responds to a number of comments INDICARE
received on the first report from experts and interested parties.
Central in the present publication is a selection of issues that reflect
new developments or that, in the view of the INDICARE team, deserve more
attention in future discussions.

Topics that this publication reports about are, among others, the
authorized domain, recent studies concerning the position of consumers
with disabilities and DRMs, developing countries, and international
aspects of DRM in general. The supplement describes recent legal
initiatives in Norway, Germany and Belgium. It also highlights some
important consultation procedures and initiatives concerning DRMs that
were initialised by the European Consumer Law Group (ECLG), The European
Consumer Organisation (BEUC) and the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue
(TACD). An update on recent technical developments in the field of copy
protection for different media is given. Finally, the role of DRM in the
information economy is discussed and if DRM, from the business
perspective, are primarily means of copy protection or business model
enablers. New DRM-based business models are introduced that are based on
viral marketing, peer-to-peer networks or subscription and rental
services. And then there are alternative business models, new DRM-free
content offerings that are reported about in this supplement.

The supplement concludes that the DRM sector is on the move, and that
consumer and DRM issues are slowly but consequently generating more
attention and triggering new initiatives in research, business models,
and on the regulatory field. The authors conclude: "The issues discussed
in this publication are issues that will very likely see more activity
in the future. INDICARE will continue to monitor the sector until the
next update end of the year".

The first supplement to the State-of-the-Art Report on =93Digital Rights
Management and Consumer Acceptability. A Multi-Disciplinary Discussion
of Consumer Concerns and Expectations=94 is available for free download
at: http://www.indicare.org/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=3D111


--
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC PO Box 19367,
Washington, DC 20036, USA Tel.:  +1.202.387.8030, fax: +1.202.234.5176

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2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland. Tel: +41 22 791 6727

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N5 1RX, UK. Tel:+44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252. Mob:+44(0)790 386 4642. Fax:
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